THE secretary who plunged the Football Association into turmoil over her affairs with Sven-Göran Eriksson, the England coach, and Mark Palios, the FA chief executive, re-ignited the controversy yesterday when she claimed that she was pestered for sex by David Davies, another of the most powerful men in football.

Faria Alam, 39, named Mr Davies, the director of football affairs and her former boss, as the “third man” in the sex scandal that engulfed football’s governing body last summer.

She claimed at an employment tribunal in Central London that Mr Davies, a married man, repeatedly tried to kiss her, told her she needed “a mature man” like him and made a series of “unwanted physical overtures”. He vigorously denies the claims.

The former secretary read calmly from a written statement, which painted an unflattering picture of the FA’s Soho Square headquarters as a place where male, middle-aged executives bombarded younger female employees with sexual advances.

She spoke of “unwelcome attentions” in the lift, arms “sneaking” around her back at parties and “suggestive” late-night telephone calls.

Ms Alam said she left her job as Mr Davies’s personal assistant after feeling humiliated, isolated and “sold down the river” by her bosses after newspaper reports about her affair with Mr Eriksson last July.

Instead of supporting her, FA officials had tried to persuade her to do “a kiss and tell” interview about the Swede with the News of the World in a deal to keep Mr Palios’s name out of the media.

She alleged that photographs were stolen from her desk, her e-mails read and a notebook in which she detailed harassment by Mr Davies went missing.

Ms Alam, who lives in Central London and said she was finding it almost impossible to get a new job, is claiming damages for constructive dismissal, sexual discrimination and breach of contract.

Any hopes the FA might have had of avoiding a rerun of last year’s embarrassing revelations were dashed when she took the stand and swore on the Koran to tell the truth.

She said she had taken a job at the FA in July 2003. Three months later she had begun a six-month affair with Mr Palios. She said she was hurt when he ended the affair after a trip overseas.

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