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The Third Man

by | 22nd, June 2005

‘IF only Faria Alam had had an agent when she worked at the Football Association.

Three lions on her chest

With all the money in football, the secretary who took her case for constructive dismissal to an employment tribunal yesterday surely could have earned some money as she transferred her affections from one colleague to another.

But the sensation from yesterday’s performance, as the Sun says, was not that England manager Sven Goran Eriksson seduced her away from then FA chief executive Mark Palios with the come on, “You’ve never tried me, give me a chance”, but that FA executive director David Davies tried to tap her up.

In “MY SEX PEST FA BOSS”, the Mirror hears Alam claim that Davies, the married former BBC presenter, made “unwanted physical overtures” towards her.

Alam was unimpressed. Unlike an England footballer, she didn’t fancy three lions on her chest, nor the Sun’s THREE LOINS”, and spurned Davies’s advances.

She told the tribunal how “on several occasions when we were alone in the lift, he would try and kiss me on the lips”.

She went on: “He advised me that his life was better with me in it and that we should run away together, or that he wanted to lock me up and throw away the key.”

How Davies must now lament how he was denied that alleged wish as he reads that he was the “third man” in the Mail.

There, his career is profiled. And we get to hear why it was that in spite of all these unwanted advances, which Alam claims she noted down in the back of a note book (now missing), she used an email to describe him as a ”great boss”.

“Mr Davies was indeed a great boss,” said she, “and bringing an accusation like this is a very serious thing…He did harass me.”

In his defence, Davies has issued a statement, which the Mail has laid its hands on. He calls the accusation of sexual harassment levelled against him “cruel”, “grotesque” and “callous”.

He says the accusation will be “refuted vehemently” not only by him but also by others.

And so it goes on. A sordid tale full of cheeky one-twos around the office, mazy runs through the legal system and FA own goals.

The only surprise is not how many men were interested in Alam, but that the money men at Chelsea were not…’



Posted: 22nd, June 2005 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink