John Delaney resigns as Ireland executive vice-president

Football Association of Ireland (FAI) executive vice-president John Delaney has resigned from the governing body.

Delaney has been on gardening leave since April amid probes into the association's corporate governance practices.

The 51-year-old, who had led the association since 2005 and remains a member of the executive committee of European soccer body UEFA, has faced heavy criticism from fans, players and politicians, including Ireland's prime minister, for his role in a number of controversies.

Ireland's state corporate watchdog began legal proceedings against the FAI in May after the association acknowledged it had broken state funding rules.

Auditors also said the 98-year-old association's accounts were not being properly kept, contravening two sections of Irish company law.

The FAI's state funding was suspended and audit firm Mazars has been undertaking a separate investigation into it, including into board expenses and payments to third parties.

It was also been revealed Delaney provided the FAI with an undisclosed personal loan of 100,000 euros in 2017 to prevent it exceeding its 1.5m euros (£1.3m) bank overdraft.

Although the governing body described it as a one-off short-term cash flow loan which was fully repaid, Delaney was initially moved to a newly created role of executive vice-president.

Delaney had previously offered to leave completely pending the investigations while insisting he acted in the best interests of the game at all times.

However, a tweet from FAI on Saturday night said: "The Board of the FAI announces the resignation with immediate effect of Executive Vice-President and former CEO John Delaney."