Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 74 Mon. August 09, 2004  
   
Sports


All guns blazing Faria


Former FA secretary Faria Alam has lifted the lid on her affair with the England coach and former FA chief executive Mark Palios.

In interviews with the Mail on Sunday and the News of the World, she went into graphic detail about their sexual encounter -- and she even hinted she would like to marry him.

The 38-year-old said Eriksson is a 'master in the art of lovemaking' and recollected one occasion when the England boss spoke to his girlfriend Nancy Dell'Olio on the phone while he was having sex on a four-poster bed with secret lover Faria.

Faris revealed Eriksson answered a call from Nancy, who was in Italy, just minutes after bedding her.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when he answered the phone. It was her calling from Italy and they had a shouting match. Just as we were making love."

Speaking for the first time since her affair with Sven, 56, was revealed, Faria also described her liaison with former FA chief executive Mark Palios.

Palios, 51, was first to bed the Bangladeshi-born beauty just months into her new job as PA to FA executive director David Davies.

Faria also revealed that Eriksson's fiery Italian girlfriend Nancy was prone to 'volcanic' rages at their London home and even threw plates at him during rows.

Sven told Faria he had not had sex with ex-lawyer Nancy for over a year and had repeatedly tried to give her the brush-off.

Faria described her affair with the football boss and claims he bedded her again and again as he tried to recover from his team's performance in Euro 2004.

She said she loves Eriksson and wants him back. And she even hinted that she would contemplate marriage with him.

"I vowed that I would never marry again but I was so in love with Sven that had he popped the question I really think I would have said yes."

The couple got together, she says, at his luxury villa in Sweden. Eriksson called her and begged her to join him when England were knocked out of the tournament.

She said: "As I walked through the door of his magnificent home, he held me in his arms and gave me an incredibly passionate kiss."

Faria said Eriksson told her he wanted to see her again.

"I replied I hope so. I want to see you. I told him I couldn't wait to see him on his return to London. But before he got back our affair had been discovered."

Faria added: "I feel sorry for Nancy. Not only does she look like a drag queen but she's latched on to someone who clearly doesn't love her.

"He told me she was incredibly bad- tempered, always flying off the handle. He said she chucked lots of plates at him and laughed, 'we have a huge crockery bill!"

"He never said he was scared of her but he clearly was. He told me 'She is mad, absolutely mad'."

Faria launched a blistering attack on the FA for the way it tried to sacrifice Eriksson to save Palios when a newspaper made clear it knew about the former secretary's affairs with both men.

She said she was 'shocked and disgusted' by former FA communications director Colin Gibson's proposal that if Palios was left out of the scandal she would have to tell them all about Eriksson.

Palios and Gibson have both resigned in the fallout from the scandal, while Eriksson has survived. The FA board ruled on Thursday that he has no case to answer.

Faria said: 'I flatly refused to lie for them and now their disgraceful plot has been exposed.

'Sven has done nothing wrong but the FA was willing to sacrifice him to get Palios off the hook. Like me he was hung out to dry by the FA.'

Eriksson had made no secret of the fact he wanted Faria and pursued her relentlessly for seven months.

She said that at a lunch in January at Kettner's restaurant in Soho, Eriksson tried to kiss her and insisted his relationship with Nancy was over. Faria said: "He said, 'You are a very beautiful woman. When a man wants something he goes and gets it and I want you. I said, 'What about Nancy?' He replied, 'There is nothing going on with us."

"I told him I'd have to go. As I tried to leave he put his hands on the door to stop me opening it. Then he kissed me on the lips. I thought he just wanted me as another notch on his bedpost and I went on to have sex with Palios."

Faria found herself between the two most powerful men in English football at a Christmas dinner in Banqueting House, London.

She said: 'I knew Sven had been vying for my attention and looking at me a lot but I was turned towards Mark Palios,talking to him about foot-ball. Then I felt a leg start to stroke up and down my leg. It was Sven's. I asked him what he was doing but he just smirked and told me to 'ssssshhhhh'.'

Faria accused the England boss of 'abandoning' her and said she now feels isolated. She added: 'I just wish he would call me one more time so I could tell him how much I love him.'

Picture
FARIA ALAM