Alan Rogers, former Premier League player and England Under 21 international, has accused the Professional Footballers' Association of 'going missing' as he faced financial ruin.
Rogers, 42, who played in the top flight for Nottingham Forest and Leicester City, contacted Sportsmail after reading last week how former Bradford winger Jamie Lawrence endured a 16-month battle with the PFA to claim money he was owed from his pension fund.
Rogers' ordeal has been similarly draining. After investing in a pub worth more than £500,000 which was later sold at auction for just £30,000, he sought support and advice from the PFA but claims nobody responded.
Ex-Premier League star Alan Rogers accused the PFA of going missing amid financial struggles
When he applied for a PFA medical grant for a knee operation to help him as a coach, he says there was a similar silence. When facing huge financial problems, Rogers felt utterly rejected by the PFA.
He said: 'I felt they neglected me. When you are playing, you are told the PFA will be there. I found quite the opposite. I felt like a burden.
'I want the PFA to work for footballers. I support anybody who will go in and make changes. But for some former and smaller players, it is no use to us now. You wonder if it was Wayne Rooney calling, whether it would be instant help. They seem to be less interested in the smaller names.'
At the turn of the Millennium, Rogers says a former PFA financial advisor encouraged him to place his trust in Kingsbridge Asset Management. Kingsbridge are now under investigation by City of London police over a series of schemes that saw high-profile footballers lose millions.
In 2005, Rogers was encouraged to transfer money into a personal pension fund with AJ Bell. Rogers used the fund to invest in a pub worth in excess of £500,000, which was set to be turned into apartments. However, planning permission fell through and Rogers became unable to rent the property out. The pension providers seized control. In an 2015 email seen by Sportsmail, Rogers wrote to the PFA and pleaded: 'Can you please give me help with this?'
'The impact has been disastrous,' Rogers says. 'It was my children's future. I ended up losing it all and they sold it at auction for £30,000. There was nothing I could do. I went to the PFA begging, saying, 'I'm losing my pension here'.
Rogers was ignored when he sought help from the PFA after a £500,000 investment failure
'All I received was an email from an employee asking for my telephone number and date of birth. A family friend is a solicitor and he left voicemail messages for Gordon Taylor but did not hear back. I was losing a huge amount of money and I just wanted some guidance and advice.
'I may have myself made financial misjudgments. That is not my point. My point is I wanted advice, help, and they were not there for me.'
A PFA source argues that the organisation asked Rogers in a telephone call to send further information but he does not believe this to be the case.
Rogers also believes the organisation could have done more to help in 2014, when he sought to withdraw money from his pension fund but the Professional Footballers' Pension scheme sought to charge a 15 per cent surcharge — on top of Rogers already being taxed at 55 per cent for an unauthorised payment — to make the transfer.
