Martin Glenn has resigned as the Football Association’s chief executive and is to leave his role at the end of the season, bringing to an end four years characterised by institutional change and public controversy.

The 58-year-old has presided over a historically successful period for England’s teams and kickstarted the growth of the women’s game in the country. He has also found himself embroiled in various scandals, from the Eni Aluko affair to the departure of Sam Allardyce after 67 days. Most recently, he was left embarrassed when the proposed sale of Wembley stadium fell through after objections from the FA’s council.

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“When I accepted the role of CEO at the FA, I was tasked with improving the effectiveness of the organisation and making it financially secure,” Glenn said after his departure was announced. “I also joined with the strong belief that the England team’s performance in tournaments could and should improve, and that the experience of the millions of people who play football could be a better one.

“I will leave feeling proud of the success of the performance of all the England teams. I am confident that we have established in St George’s Park, a world-class centre which will ensure that the teams will continue to build on their current successes. I hope that the FA will be able to build on this by accelerating the breakthrough of English-qualified players into the first teams.”

England reached the semi-finals of this summer’s World Cup, following a third-placed finish by England’s women at the equivalent tournament in 2015. These achievements have been accompanied by widespread success at younger age groups and are seen by many in the game as vindication of the FA’s “England DNA” philosophy, built around the hub of St George’s Park. Although Glenn arrived at the FA after the blueprint was published, he has been responsible for its implementation and, in so doing, has been credited with an increased professionalisation within football’s governing body.

The chairman of the FA, Greg Clarke, paid tribute to Glenn. “On behalf of the board of the FA, I would like to thank Martin for building and leading a senior management team that has transformed our organisation,” he said. “His integrity, commitment, energy and passion for football has underpinned the improvements on and off the pitch.

“The resulting commercial success has funded hugely significant change in the women’s game, St George’s Park, the FA Cup and the national teams. Martin leaves as his legacy an organisation that is fit for purpose, more diverse, internationally respected and ready to progress to the next level.”

Last year, Glenn announced plans to double the number of participants in the women’s game and the full professionalisation of the FA Women’s Super League soon followed. However, his association with the women’s game will also be remembered for the way he dealt with the Aluko affair. After the FA was accused of failing to take seriously accusations of racism against the then England women’s coach, Mark Sampson, Glenn was criticised for an internal investigation that initially cleared Sampson, only to find, when it was reopened last year, that Sampson had made two inappropriate remarks.

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Glenn was also alleged by Aluko to have withheld part of an £80,000 settlement dependent on her writing a statement asserting the FA was not institutionally racist, something Glenn has always denied. Sampson was sacked last year for behaviour that predated the Aluko affair and had initially been cleared by the FA’s safeguarding team.

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Glenn also presided over the appointment of Allardyce and his removal in the wake of a newspaper sting. More recently, Glenn failed in his attempt to sell Wembley to Fulham’s owner, Shahid Khan, after apparently underestimating the strength of feeling against the move in the FA council. Glenn had pledged to put all the proceeds from the sale into an expanded fund for grassroots football, plans abandoned when Khan withdrew his £600m offer in October.

The FA is reported to have been drawing up a shortlist of Glenn’s possible successors for some time, with his replacement expected to take charge of the run-up to Euro 2020, which will include a semi-final and the final played at Wembley.