Plotting FA boss tried to save skin
FURIOUS Faria Alam told last night how her boss and one-time lover, FA supremo Mark Palios, ordered her to lie just to save his own skin.
Palios was terrified their secret affair was about to be exposed by the News of the World in the wake of our sensational revelations of Faria's fling with Sven Goran Eriksson.
Secretary Faria told us: "Palios phoned me and said, ‘Anything to do with you and me, just pooh-pooh it.'
"He was asking me to lie and cover up for him. I was incredibly p***ed off. Palios didn't care a toss about me or Sven. He was willing to hang the both of us just to try and save his own neck from the noose."
Faria, 38, couldn't believe this betrayal by the man who had shared the most intimate moments with her in her London flat.
But the doomed FA Svengate plot to protect beleaguered chief executive Palios was underway. After issuing a denial about the Sven fling they were about to backtrack on it.
Faria revealed: "The FA's PR chief Colin Gibson then called me and said, ‘I know about Mark. This is a difficult situation. You know we have to protect Mark.' Gibson later rang again and said, ‘We're going to do a trade-off.'
"I said, ‘What do you mean?' He told me the News of the World knew about my affair with Mark and said, ‘As you know, we have to protect Mark — so we're going to tell them that if they keep him out of the papers, we'll tell them all about Sven. But YOU will have to tell them everything about Sven.'
"I was shocked and disgusted by his proposal. I said, ‘What? I'm going to call my lawyer!'
"Gibson then added coldly, ‘Yeah, you'd better get yourself a lawyer.'"
Gibson then repeated his plan to Faria's legal adviser.
Faria told us: "My lawyer was stunned and said to him, ‘You're basically saying she should lie for you and Palios?'
"And Gibson replied, ‘Yes, we'll make it favourable for her. We'll sort her out later with a package. There'll be money at the end of it.'
"But I flatly refused to go along with all this and then last Sunday the News of the World exposed Gibson's disgraceful plot.
"I'd already phoned Sven to warn him what the FA was up to but he didn't believe it. When he saw the paper he was totally gobsmacked.
"He rang me and said, ‘It's incredible, how could they do this?'
"He wanted the FA exposed for the way we'd both been treated. Sven hadn't done anything wrong but the FA were willing to sacrifice him to get Palios off the hook."
But all the scheming had backfired. Instead of the "chapter and verse" kiss-and-tell story offered by the FA, we published chapter and verse on the scandal of Gibson's underhand dealings.
Last Sunday Palios could hold out no longer and resigned. He was quickly followed by Gibson who quit as director of communications.
And last night Faria seethed: "Gibson is a bastard for trying to fix that outrageous deal. But I strongly suspect he was under instructions from Palios. It's a disgrace.
"Palios is a cold-hearted cad and I wish I'd never had an affair with him. I'm glad he has lost his job."
Faria then told how she first learned her love life was to make front page news three weeks ago.
The tip-off came in a phone call from her immediate boss, executive director and now acting chief executive David Davies.
"He rang me on the Saturday afternoon and left a message simply saying, ‘I've got some disturbing news. Call me.' Before I had a chance to ring back he phoned again and warned, ‘The News of the Worldare tomorrow going to run a story alleging you're having an affair with Sven.' David knew Sven liked me but didn't know we were having a fling.
"I denied it and told him it was absolutely rubbish. I wanted to protect Sven and save my job.
"Then Colin Gibson called me on the Sunday after the story came out and said, ‘If you get any calls from the press direct them to me and I'll take care of it.'
"But he didn't ask me if I was having an affair with Sven.
"When I went to work at the office on Monday morning, Gibson came to me and said, ‘Can we have a chat?' He took me into a room with my boss David and Alistair MacLean, the in-house lawyer, and they started grilling me about Sven.
"I said we'd had dinner a few times and spoke on the phone. Then David asked, ‘So there's nothing going on between the two of you?' I replied, ‘Not really'.
"David said, ‘What is not really?' I said nothing.
"Then Alistair warned me, ‘If this story is true, it could prove expensive for us.'
"I feel so angry at the way they put me in that room and had three men interrogating me, making me feel scared about something which they should have handled professionally.
"They should have just issued a statement to the press saying, ‘These are private people with private lives and it has nothing to do with the FA.'
"Instead I felt I was being pressurised. I was being cornered. I couldn't speak freely and I didn't have anyone on my side looking after my interests. Alistair later showed me a statement the FA were going to put out denying the affair. I was in shock and naively hoped that would make the whole story fade away.
"I knew it was a huge lie. But I wanted to protect Sven and my job. Yet the moment the statement went out I knew it was foolish and could rebound on me big time."
After a tense six-hour meeting this week FA bosses ruled that Sven had "no case to answer" over his affair with Faria. Last night she told us: "I totally agree with that. As far as I'm concerned, Sven is blameless.
"On the Monday after the scandal broke he rang to check I was OK.
"I asked would he mind if I spoke out to set the record straight. He said, ‘That is up to you.' He called me quite a few times again after that. But he NEVER asked me not to sell my story and he NEVER asked me to deny the affair.
"The scandal was NOT his affair with me. The scandal is how the FA set about covering it up and then tried to stitch up Sven to save Palios's neck. That's why I've now resigned.
"And my advice to Sven—as someone who still really cares for him—is to quit his job too. Those b******s at the FA want to destroy him. The knives are out."
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