Delaney's English counterpart earned £699,000

Outgoing Chief Executive of the English FA Martin Glenn was paid a salary of £699,000 (€819,000) in 2017, an increase of £109,000 (€127,000) from the previous year.

Details of the CEO’s remuneration are published in the FA’s financial statements for 2017, the latest year for which such information is currently available. John Delaney is believed to have been paid €360,000 in his role as FAI Chief Executive during the same year.

However, the Irish Examiner has established that Mr Glenn’s arrangements with his employer do not include living in houses rented by the FA.

The Sunday Times reported two weeks ago that Mr Delaney, who moved last month from the role of CEO to the new post of FAI Executive Vice-President, had lived in houses rented by the Association in recent years.

Following earlier reports of a €100,000 loan by Mr Delaney to the FAI in April 2017 that was repaid to him two months later, the FAI Board last weekend announced the establishment of a sub-committee from amongst its members, which will work closely with the Association’s external advisers and auditors to urgently address concerns caused by recent media coverage.

The Board added that global auditing and consulting group Mazars has been commissioned by the sub-committee “to conduct an independent and in-depth external review of all matters”.

Corporate governance is a hot topic in football administration circles at present. Germany’s FA is reeling after Reinhard Grindel resigned as president earlier this week after admitting he accepted a watch worth €6,000 as a gift from Hryhoriy Surkis, a UEFA Vice-President.

Mr Grindel is also a Vice-President of UEFA’s Executive Committee. His fall from grace could give Mr Delaney an opportunity to rise higher in the governing body of European football, to whose ExCo he was elected two years ago.

“We are obviously aware of the situation and will be making a further announcement in due course,” a UEFA spokesperson said today, when contacted about Mr Grindel’s future.

Mr Grindel is understood to be reluctant to step down from his UEFA post in the short term, but if he does so in the coming months an election to succeed him will take place at UEFA’s next Ordinary Congress, in Amsterdam next March.

Mr Delaney’s status as a candidate would be enhanced by his new title of Executive Vice-President at the FAI.