Faria Alam used PR supremo Max Clifford to sell her story

London, Nov. 4: The former England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, has today given his side of his sexually charged affair with Faria Alam, the Bangladeshi woman who had worked as a secretary at the Football Association.

Faria, who was 38 when she had a fling with Sven in 2004, was dumped by her lover the moment the scandal broke in the British tabloids.

Her account is that when she realised that Sven had broken off the relationship for good, she used PR supremo Max Clifford to sell her story for a reported £500,000.

She described in over graphic and colourful language her first session of love-making with Sven at his country home in Sweden.

But Sven’s account, taken from his just published autobiography, Sven: My Story, claims they had been meeting secretly and had been lovers for weeks, using the Indian-owned Leonard Hotel near Marble Arch in London as the rendezvous for their regular assignations.

Sven, as gallant as ever, alleges Faria slept with him on their very first date – after he had been generous enough to buy her lunch.

“The first time I met Faria Alam was at the Football Association offices in London,” writes Sven. “She sat at a desk outside the glass-walled office of David Davies, the executive director. Faria was a dark and exotic-looking former model who’d been born in Bangladesh. Each time I came by David’s office, we ended up talking more and more.”

He goes on: “However, I wasn’t the only one who liked Faria. At a big dinner, she and Mark Palios, the FA chief executive, had become romantically involved — though I didn’t find out about this until later on. Indeed, no one knew about their relationship at the time.”

In extracts from his autobiography published in the Daily Mail, Sven says: “I think it was in February 2004 that I first called Faria to ask her out for lunch. I was pretty sure she was going to say ‘Yes’. So I booked a room at the Leonard Hotel near Marble Arch, where we had lunch and one thing led to another. She was sexy and smart — just my type — and very pleasant to be around.” He adds: “We started seeing each other at least once a week, sometimes at the Leonard Hotel, sometimes for lunch at an Indian restaurant where Faria knew the owner. During the Euros (the UEFA European Football Championship) in Portugal, I talked to Faria on the phone almost every day.”

It will be recalled that in Faria’s account, published in the Mail on Sunday and in the now defunct News of the World, there had been a throwaway line: “Faria had a string of lovers, including Bollywood star Salman Khan in 1996...”

Salman issued a statement at the time. He said he had no idea who the woman was and had doubts whether he had ever met her.

“I remember every friend I’ve ever had so this is all rubbish and that is all I want to say on the matter,” said Salman.

Sven-Goran Eriksson claims he did not love his long-time mistress Nancy Dell’Olio

Faria said sex with Mark Palios during their brief liaison was unsatisfactory, while Eriksson, in marked contrast, “was a master of the art of love-making”.

“It was all so erotic, so passionate,” said Faria, lapsing into the kind of language which would not disgrace a Mills & Boon novelette.

When Faria quizzed Sven about his live-in Italian mistress, Nancy Dell’Olio — the latter had left her husband for the Swede six years previously — he assured her the relationship had died: “The physical aspect of her died for me a long time ago.”

The News of the World reported that “it was 56-year-old Sven who later scored the winner (over Mark Palios) when it came to passion play”.

It said: “The build-up to their first night of love at his Swedish home began in the wake of England’s Euro 2004 quarter-finals defeat by Portugal in June. “We had a wonderful dinner,” remembered Faria. “When we finished I was full of anticipation — but he wanted to clear the plates away first.”

Although a top man in a top job, Sven (unlike any Indian in an equivalent position) did not have a servant to clear away the dining table. “After he’d filled the dishwasher he led me up the stairs to his bedroom,” gushed Faria.

After the tabloids found out, the affair ended badly for Faria, who claimed she was unceremoniously dumped by Sven. Meanwhile, his home in Sweden was doorstepped by an army of paps.

Sven today took up the story: “While all this was going on, Faria hired the publicist Max Clifford. With his help, she sold her story of how I’d seduced her.”

The suggestion here is that she had been more than willing.

“The articles contained quite graphic descriptions of our love-making, but that really didn’t matter to me,” says Sven. “It was said Faria had received hundreds of thousands of pounds to tell her side of the story, but I didn’t have any problems with that either. She’d been hung out to dry and had lost her job, so why not make some money from the ordeal? What made me sad was that it was definitely over between us. I liked Faria a lot. I think love had even blossomed, at least from my end.”

As for the Italian woman who had left her husband for him, Sven has this to say: “I felt no remorse towards Nancy. She lived in my house, but we weren’t married and I didn’t love her. “