Katrien Meire, the controversial Charlton Athletic chief executive, has been appointed to the FA Council as one of four Football League representatives.

The 32-year-old Belgian lawyer, who took over the day-to-day running at The Valley in January 2014 after Roland Duchâtelet bought the south London club, has been met by widespread criticism from Charlton fans as the club were relegated to League One last season amid chaos on and off the pitch.

The FA announced the makeup of the new council on Sunday night. Barry Bright leads the panel with David Gill as the acting chairman.

Ian Lenagan, the Football League chairman, Jim Rodwell of Scunthorpe and Fleetwood’s Steve Curwood join Meire as the council’s Football League representatives, with four remaining vacancies to be confirmed.

Meire has been subject to regular protests from Charlton fans and did “apologise for our mistakes” towards the end of last season. However, supporters remain disenchanted with the club. The atmosphere threatened to boil over towards the end of last season when, at a home game against Brighton, a group of fans had surrounded the directors’ box only to be met by a wall of security surrounding Meire following a couple of disruptions to the game.

Russell Slade has taken over as manager but Charlton opened their League One campaign with a 2-0 defeat at Bury on Saturday.