Faria Alam

London, June 22: If the case of Faria Alam illustrates anything about romances at work, it is that the office computer should not be used to send sexy emails.

Faria hit the headlines last year over her affair with two senior men at the Football Association, where she was a ?36,000-a-year secretary.

One was Mark Palios, the chief executive, who was embarrassed into resigning. The other, the Swedish-born England coach Sven Goran Eriksson, survived. Faria, dumped by both, went on to sell her “kiss and tell” account.

The reaction of Asian women in Britain is quite complex. Some are horrified at the behaviour of a woman who also happens to be from a traditional Muslim Bangladeshi family. Others, especially the younger ones, applaud her courage in taking on powerful, middle-aged white men, who were out to use her, they say.

Other kiss-and-tell women (e.g. Ulrika Johnson, Rebecca Loos) have used their affairs to launch successful TV careers. But Faria has been unable or unwilling to do that. And now she finds herself unemployable.

Faria, now 39 and determined to fight her corner, was back in the headlines when she appeared before an employment tribunal to seek compensation for the loss of her job.

But the FA’s lawyers hit back by revealing the contents of emails Faria had sent to her friends, detailing her sexual exploits. One “friend” was not that much of a friend, for when the Faria story broke, she sold the contents of the emails to a paper.

Faria today faced the embarrassment of having her very personal emails read out in public. In one, she wrote: “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.”

In another to the “friend”, she said: “I’m 36, unmarried and loving it. My social life is amazing and I date famous people.” She also described sex with Palios ? whom she called “PP” for Pretty Polly ? and her relationship with Eriksson. She described the England manager as a “generous lover” and gave details of his performance of a sex act, the hearing was told.

In another email, Faria wrote: “Sugar is brilliant. I want to be happy and very, very rich and successful and I will be. I’m not going to go through life settling for second best EVER. If all goes well, I suppose Sugar will have to announce it to the papers.”

One email spoke about the prospect of her affair with Eriksson being uncovered. She wondered: “Could all be out in the open soon hon, ahh, I’m nervous?”

Jeffrey Bacon, the lawyer for the FA, refuted her claim that she had been smeared by the FA and said: “It is really your boasting to friends and colleagues that led to the story exploding.”