- The Observer, Sunday April 21 2002
Some 24 hours after the Daily Mirror revealed that the two Swedes were allegedly having an affair, Eriksson took his seat in the stand for Chelsea's crucial game with Manchester United in London yesterday. Moments later, Jonsson arrived at the ground with television presenter Angus Deayton and sat less than 100 yards from Eriksson as a row ranged from Scandinavia to Swindon about whether the affair, if true, could damage England's prospects at the World Cup next month.
It may have seemed like simply a minor tabloid scoop containing juicy details of a relationship between two of Britain's most famous Swedes-in-residence. But last night, as the apparently carefully choreographed media outing of England's manager and his new lover was being played out, some commentators feared that the hullabaloo could distract Eriksson from England's bid for glory in South Korea and Japan.
Eriksson had previously told friends that the worst thing about coming to England 15 months ago was the constant scrutiny of his private life by the tabloids. Now some football commentators are warning that the disclosures could drive the Swede away, persuading him to sign contracts worth a reputed £5m tax-free a year being offered by big Spanish and Italian clubs.
That would certainly make Eriksson's home life easier than it appeared to be yesterday. The day, as football pundits might say, started badly for Eriksson, and then fell away.
Nancy Dell'Olio, the 37-year-old lawyer with whom Eriksson shares his £2m house in London's Regent Park, told waiting reporters via the intercom that she and her partner were 'talking' about the details of that morning's newspapers.
Asked if she and Eriksson would be staying together, she added: 'Yes, definitely, yes and we are talking together. What the papers have printed is rubbish. It's the facts we are talking about. I don't want to talk to any journalist. Please don't call me back.'
Earlier, a stony-faced Eriksson had left home. Before getting into his chauffeur-driven Mercedes, the normally unflappable 53-year-old grunted 'good morning' to the waiting press and then refused to answer any more questions. After arriving home for more 'talks' with Dell'Olio last night, he again refused to answer questions about the reported affair.
While football fans fretted yesterday about the effects on his management ability of all the publicity, equally intriguing was the way in which the 'story' was seemingly being managed to ensure Eriksson was forced into making a choice between Jonsson, 34, and Dell'Olio, 37.
It emerged yesterday that an agent for Jonsson, who currently appears in the television quiz show Shooting Stars, with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, reportedly confirmed the news of the affair to the Daily Mirror after learning that the News of the World planned to publish salacious details in today's paper.
Melanie Cantor, of Take 3 Management, which represents Jonsson, was contacted by Piers Morgan, editor of the Daily Mirror, on Thursday.
' I went to Melanie Cantor [Jonsson's manager], who I know, and said: 'It's a fait accompli,' Morgan said yesterday. He warned her: ' If it gets into the wrong hands, it will be treated as rather sordid. It's a pretty sensational piece of gossip and we'll treat it as such, put it into our 3am slot and not make it out to be a big scandal, as it's two unmarried people getting together."
Cantor agreed, apparently providing confirmation for Friday's Mirror to report as fact that 'a close friendship between this charismatic Swedish duo has blossomed into a full-blown love affair'. The paper's sympathetic treatment of the story may turn out to mark a turning-point in how tabloids treat such liaisons, at least between people who are not married.
Executives at the News of the World , furious to have lost their hoped-for exclusive, believe Cantor passed 'their' story to the Mirror in return for a promise to go easy on her client. The Mirror's soft-soap coverage suggested their complaints may be well-founded, but Morgan insists that it was only 'gossip, albeit what I call serious and albeit the most sensational piece of one-fact gossip since "Cherie pregnant at 45".'
Morgan, whose paper broke the news under the headline 'Svensational!', added: 'Our story is 100 per cent true. It's been going on for months and I suspect they're amazed that it didn't come out earlier. Look, I feel sorry for Nancy because it's obviously true and she hasn't been kept in the loop.'
Sadly for Nancy, Eriksson's employers, the Football Association, did not seem to demur yesterday.Officially, spokesmen were insisting it was a 'private' matter.
The disclosures follow a chance encounter between Eriksson and Jonsson last December. Richard Desmond, the publisher of the Express , threw a party at the Roundhouse, a venue in North London, to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. Show business stars mingled with figures from government.
As the rich and powerful talked politics and money, Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's director of communications, was with a group of guests, including Jonsson, when Eriksson walked by with Dell'Olio.
'I said to her, "Here's another Swede for you to talk to", Campbell recalled. 'I thought as they were both Swedish and living in the UK they might have something in common - but if they did Campbell had no inkling. 'They were talking Swedish. I don't understand it,' he said.
While Eriksson was last night bracing himself for more revelations in today's tabloids, the Swedish public were yesterday also lapping up the news about the manager, their most famous export since Abba in the 1970s.
'In Sweden Svennis is huge. There's a lot of interest in him,' Leis Brannstrom, the news editor of Expressen , said yesterday. 'Swedes are very proud of Svennis. That a Swede could head up the English football team is almost unbelievable. He's a real hero.'
Karin Ahlburg, news editor at rival Aftonbladet, Sweden's answer to the Daily Mirror , said that speculation about the nature of Jonsson's relationship with 'Svennis' had reached fever pitch because the two were both 'Swedish superstars'.
As Sweden's press matched Fleet Street's appetite for the story, Jonsson's mother, Gun Brodie, yesterday seemed to dispel any doubt about the romance by predicting a happy relationship ahead for them.
'I know they have met up,' she said. 'Ulrika has spoken a bit about Sven-Göran, but I haven't met him. They enjoy each other's company. I would be glad if they managed to make it work.' Jonsson, who has been serially unlucky in love through a string of high-profile boyfriends, probably hopes her mother is right. Dell'Olio clearly intends to do her best to keep hold of a man she lovingly refers to as 'my Sven'.
Last night, Dell'Olio and 'her' Sven were reported to be still 'talking' at the home they still share - for now. Jonsson, meanwhile, was reportedly spending the night at her £850,000 home in Cookham Dean, Berkshire.
England play Sweden in the opening match of their World Cup campaign on 3 June.
Additional reporting by Andrew Osborn.
