SOCCER/ English FA news: The English Football Association's chief executive, Mark Palios, resigned last night as the handling of Sven-Goran Eriksson's affair with Faria Alam moved toward a full-blown crisis.

It followed revelations that Palios ordered his communications director to "brief" against Eriksson in order to prevent details of his own affair with Ms Alam being published.

The allegation, published in yesterday's News of the World, had placed Palios under huge pressure to resign from his £400,000-a-year post and will almost certainly lead to the departure of Colin Gibson, the FA's communications director, who has offered to step down.

Telephone transcripts of a conversation between Gibson and a senior executive on the News of the World show he offered the paper "chapter and verse on her (Alam) and Sven" in order to keep details of Mr Palios's affair out of the public eye.

Gibson told the executive that Palios (51) was trying to affect a reconciliation with his ex-wife, with whom he has five children, and on the day of publication would be at a birthday party for one of his children.

The transcript shows Gibson offered to set up an interview with Alam for the paper, and to pass on details of the affair with Eriksson to buy silence on Palios.

"The pay-off obviously is that we leave MP (Palios) out of it," he said. "I've got the details, I've got the places, I've got the phone calls, I've got everything."

Asked if Alam would talk to the paper, Gibson replied: "If she won't I will, on her behalf."

He went on to provide details of where Alam and Eriksson dined together and of a trip Alam made to Sweden. He insisted his offer had Palios's blessing: "He's keen, we're all keen, to see the deal go through."

The revelations also place a question mark against the future of Geoff Thompson, FA chairman, who last week cleared Palios of any wrongdoing over his relationship with Alam, a secretary at FA headquarters in London.

Last week Thompson said he was conducting an inquiry into the issuing of an FA statement on July 20, denying allegations Eriksson and Alam had an affair.

Five days later the FA was forced to retract the allegation after the News of the World provided proof Alam had affairs with both Eriksson and Palios.

The inquiry was expected to focus on whether Eriksson wilfully misled the FA when asked about his affair with Alam. But yesterday's revelations shift the focus to the role played by Palios, Gibson and Thompson.

Yesterday, Gibson said he was acting under instruction from Palios, and Thompson was aware of the deal.

"Last week I complied with the FA inquiry, gave them complete details of the events of July 24th, including transcripts of telephone calls, and my minute-to-minute movements," he said.

"The FA knew the details last week and the story about brokering a deal."

While pressure on the FA hierarchy mounts, Eriksson now finds himself under less pressure than at any time in the affair.

Eriksson, in Amsterdam watching Arsenal play Ajax, declined to comment yesterday. However, his agent, Athole Still, said he was "appalled" by the revelation. "We still find it almost impossible to believe," he said.

Guardian Service