Marshall Munetsi says there are several local players who have fallen prey to bogus agents and lost thousands of dollars.

The France-based midfielder, who is part of the FIFPro’s Global Player Council, will use the platform to help these players with better knowledge on the transfers.

“One of the main reasons I joined the council was to help address the issue of fake agents,” he said on FIFPro website. “It is a subject I’m passionate about and it is a subject that has become a big challenge, especially in Africa.

“Coming from Zimbabwe, I have seen friends and former team-mates lose a lot of money – money they worked hard to earn, money their parents worked hard to earn – due to people pretending to be a football agent. I saw this a lot when I played in South Africa.

“A lot of these players were given false promises and sold dreams of playing in Europe. I know some who even flew to Europe only to arrive at the airport and find out no-one was there; the money had already been taken from them by these fake agents with nothing to show for it.”

Munetsi recently attended an exchange at the FIFPro House in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, where he pushed the talk about the current situation of local football to FIFA.

The country is currently banned from international football due to third party interference in the running of the game.

“I feel the association should have done better when it came to discussing with FIFA and finding a possible solution not to affect the young generation that is there – because the talent in Zimbabwe is there. It has been seen by players that have moved to Europe and also by me playing here in France.

“This month, we could have been playing World Cup semi-finalists Morocco – the only African team to ever make the final four on the global stage – and it would have been a celebration. Their first competitive game on the back of that historic World Cup run would have been against Zimbabwe. The country has been denied what would have been such a special occasion.”