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LOVER'S RESPECT
Sven-Goran Eriksson’s ex Faria Alam makes tribute to late England boss & reveals regret about how their affair ended
British-Bangladeshi beauty Faria also revealed her fondest memory of Sven
SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON’s ex-mistress Faria Alam has said an emotional final farewell to the late former England boss with the words: “See you on the other side.”
The Sun on Sunday spoke to the one-time FA secretary at her home near Seattle in America on the day Sven was buried in Sweden.
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And Faria revealed they resumed contact in 2014 — ten years after their six-month affair — when he invited her to fly out to meet him in Hong Kong.
Faria’s affair with the then Three Lions coach in 2004 caused a major scandal as Sven was in a relationship with Italian-American lawyer Nancy Dell’Olio at the time.
Faria, 58, looked back at her romance with the Swede from her US home on Friday, the same day Sven was laid to rest.
British-Bangladeshi beauty Faria told The Sun on Sunday she believes Sven’s spirit will live on even though he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in August aged 76.
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And she revealed her regret about how the affair ended and told how Sven had left a lasting impact on her life.
Paying tribute to her former lover, Faria said: “I just want him to rest in peace, and see you on the other side if we ever meet.
“The body deteriorates and dies, but your soul never does. His soul will always remain. I hope his spirit lives on, especially in his children. I’m sure it does.
“I want to give my deepest condolences to his family and his partner.”
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His heartbroken partner, Panamanian ex-dancer Yaniseth Alcides, 53, and his children Johan, 45, and Lina, 37, were among 600 mourners at the funeral held in Sven’s hometown of Torsby.
Also at the town’s Fryksande church were Nancy, 63, whose ten-year relationship with him ended in 2007, and Sven’s England captain David Beckham, 49.
Sven-Goran Eriksson is laid to rest at funeral service in Torsby, Sweden
Sven and Faria began seeing each other after she had been romantically involved with FA chief executive Mark Palios.
Before wooing her, dark horse Sven had cheated on Nancy with fellow Swede Ulrika Jonsson in 2002.
Faria insists that Sven and Nancy were no longer living together when her romance with him began.
She says she told him she could not get involved with him if he was seeing someone else but he took her to his house and there was no trace of Nancy there.
Faria explained: “He was very attracted to me and I was slowly getting attracted to him, but I still backed off because I thought, ‘No, I know he has a girlfriend. I shouldn’t be doing any of this.’
“I didn’t until I knew that it was OK for me to do.
I just want him to rest in peace, and see you on the other side if we ever meet
Faria Alam
“I know for a fact she didn’t live in the house any more. I didn’t do anything before that.
“They made it look like he was in the midst of this amazing marriage or whatever.
“First of all, they weren’t married. Nobody was married. I wasn’t, he wasn’t.
“I understand people may think it’s a betrayal, but who is betraying who when he wasn’t with her?”
Faria said her fondest memory of Sven was a dinner they had to- gether at Indian restaurant Yaatra in Mayfair towards the end of 2003, before they had started dating.
She also recalled visiting him at his home in Torsby and meeting his father Sven Snr, now 95.
‘Very passionate’
She said: “The way he treated me was just like a woman should be treated. He was very respectful and honourable.
“He talked about football a lot and how he really enjoyed the game. If he could, he would’ve played again.
“He was very passionate about football. He was just a very passionate man, overall. He was the complete opposite of his cool exterior.
“He showed that he was very calm and collected and when he spoke it was a deliberate calmness.
“But when it was personal and one to one, he was very passionate with what he used to say to me.
"We’d go out to dinner when it was possible and he would always say, ‘We have a great relationship and a great rapport, we have a good situation here’.
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“I know he loved me, he said so, and I told him I loved him because I did.”
Sven had announced his battle with pancreatic cancer in January. He told Amazon Prime documentary Sven, released just days before he died: “I had a good life.
“Hopefully at the end people will say, yeah, he was a good man, but everyone will not say that.
“I hope you will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do.”
These days Faria lives in Kirkland, a city 12 miles north of downtown Seattle in Washington state.
She works in sales and marketing for luxury brand Gucci and keeps fit by walking around her suburban neighbourhood.
The body deteriorates and dies, but your soul never does. His soul will always remain. I hope his spirit lives on, especially in his children
Faria Alam
Faria already suffered heartache earlier this year when she lost her mother in February, aged 86.
She said the last time she spoke with Sven was in 2014.
“I managed to get his email address and emailed him,” she explained.
"He reached out and asked for my number. I think he was in China at the time and he asked to meet in Hong Kong.
“I said, ‘I’d love to, but I just can’t even leave work at the moment right now’.
“He said it would just be nice to meet up. That was all. It wasn’t to start anything up.
"He just wanted to see me, I guess. I didn’t go but we spoke very fondly to each other about how we felt.”
Faria said even though they were together for only six months and had not spoken in a decade, Sven left a lasting impact on her life.
‘It broke me’
She said: “For me, having that relationship was quite something.
“It meant a lot to me because it changed me. I became who I am today. I’m stronger. I was very fearful of things when I was younger. I was more bothered about what people said.”
Former fashion model Faria joined the FA as a personal assistant in July 2003.
She began a relationship with then divorced dad-of-five Mark towards the end of that year.
It culminated in a trip to Paris together but after that, the football chief broke things off with her.
Faria’s relationships with Sven and Mark, now 71, were revealed in August 2004.
Earlier that summer, England had been knocked out of the quarter- finals of the Euro 2004 championship by Portugal on penalties.
The sex scandal forced Mark — currently the co-owner, with his wife Nicola, and chairman of League Two club Tranmere Rovers — to step down from his role at the helm of the FA.
The way he treated me was just like a woman should be treated. He was very respectful and honourable
Faria Alam
In October 2004, Faria accused the FA of sexual harassment, unfair dismissal and breach of contract but her claims were rejected by an employment tribunal.
Faria said the one regret from her relationship with Sven was how she decided to leave London after their fling was revealed.
She took a job with a fashion label in New York even though Sven begged her to stay.
She said: “I don’t think I had the maturity to push forward with him because of the backlash I’d had.
“It just broke me and I needed a break from London.
“I regret it because of his tone, his voice — not pleading, but just telling me, ‘Hold on. Don’t just go and disappear’.
“That was my only regret, not taking him up on that and not listening to him.”
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“I know he loved me and cared about me.
“Maybe if things had been different, my life wouldn’t have been here. Maybe it would have been with him.”
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