Soccer: FA reveals Alam’s 'bragging emails'

LONDON - The English Football Association (FA) has revealed a series of emails it says were sent by former secretary Faria Alam in which she boasts of her sexual relationships with senior figures in the organisation.

Alam, 39, had an affair with both England soccer coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, 56, and the FA's chief executive Mark Palios, 52, who resigned in mid-2004 after the affairs became public.

Alam quit her secretarial post last August following newspaper revelations of her affairs, later selling her story to the press for £300,000 ($774,593).

She is suing the FA, claiming constructive dismissal and sexual discrimination.

Alam said that she felt forced to resign because of media pressure which she said had been created in part by leaks about her private life from within the FA.

However, in the employment tribunal hearing she was questioned all day by the FA's barrister Jeffrey Bacon, who suggested that it was her own "boasting emails" on the FA's email system, some of which were sold to a newspaper by a recipient, that had allowed the story to emerge and develop.

Bacon said that one email to a friend said: "I'm 36, unmarried and loving it. My social life is amazing and I date famous people although I can't say who."

Bacon said that Alam was aware of the risks of writing such mails on the FA's system and used the code names "Sugar" for Eriksson and "PP" or "Pretty Polly" for Palios.

Other Alam emails to friends and colleagues at the FA included her saying: "I haven't been naughty yet but the guy I will see tomorrow night is the more famous one. Let's call him Sugar, he's very sweet and he's the coach.

"Sugar is brilliant. I want to be happy and very, very rich and successful and I will be. If things go well ... I suppose Sugar will have to announce it to the papers.

"He's been pursuing me since September last year. I've fallen for him and care for him immensely."

Asked whether she had written in some detail about sex and sexual experiences, she replied: "Yes."

Alam said that once the affair became public she felt she had to resign and agreed she wrote her letter of resignation from the office of publicist Max Clifford.

"By that evening you were 300,000 pounds richer," Bacon said in reference to two £150,000 deals to sell her story to two Sunday newspapers, to which Alam replied: "Yes."

"You resigned so you could sell your story," he said. Alam denied that, claiming her position had become "untenable".

Alam, who prompted a brief adjournment after becoming distressed, admitted lying to her employer when first asked about the affairs but said she did so only to protect Eriksson.

"I'm still very fond of him," she said of the Swede.

"I was trying to protect him."

The FA's director of communications, Colin Gibson, quit when it emerged that he had tried to arrange a deal with a newspaper where details of Alam's relationship with Eriksson would be exposed in return for keeping silent about Palios, a married man with children.

"Gibson threatened me, more or less, to tell my story and sell Sven and I down the river to protect Mark and the kids," she said.

"I didn't want to lie.

Bacon said: "For you, what you say and what gets written depends on the number of noughts on the end of the cheque."

He will continue his questioning tomorrow and the hearing is expected to run until next Tuesday.

On the opening day, Alam told the tribunal she had been sexually harassed by executive director David Davies during her time at the FA.

Davies, 57, who has described the assertion as "cruel and grotesque," was at today's hearing. He is expected to give evidence later this week.

- REUTERS