CEO and the Aviva Stadium

Delaney rose to prominence in the wake of the 2002 Keane Saipan saga, having emerged as the FAI's public figurehead during the affair.^[11] He became acting chief executive of the organisation in December 2004, after Fran Rooney's acrimonious departure,^[12][13] and took up the role full-time in March 2005.^[14] In November 2006, his contract was extended to 2012.^[14] In July 2010, the FAI's Board of Directors agreed to extend his contract again, until 2015,^[11] and in July 2014 once more, this time to 2019.^[15]

The biggest project undertaken during Delaney's time in office was the expansion of the Irish Rugby Football Union stadium at Lansdowne Road to become the Aviva Stadium. Led by the IRFU with the active participation of the FAI, the project successfully delivered the stadium but while the State and the IRFU parts were financially as planned, the FAI found itself in severe debt. The main scheme to pay for the FAI elements of the work, the Vantage Club for high-income fans, massively under-delivered on advance ticket sales, partly due to the declining economic climate after the Irish financial crisis and partially to the over-pricing of the ticket offering.^[16]

Handball incident and aftermath

When FIFA offered Ireland a Fair Play Award following 2009's France v Republic of Ireland play-off, Delaney respectfully declined and said FIFA President Sepp Blatter was "an embarrassment to himself and an embarrassment to FIFA".^[17]

On 4 June 2015, it was revealed by Delaney that FIFA had paid the FAI €5m to stop legal action against them after their controversial World Cup play-off defeat in 2009.^[18][19][20]

2012–2017

In 2012 Delaney cut all FAI staff wages by 10% and announced he would do the same with his wages. However, in March 2019 it emerged that the FAI had awarded him a benefit-in-kind payment of €3,000 a month towards a house in Kilmacanogue, rented from Grainne Seoige. This outraged the staff as he already earned more than €300,000 annually more than most of them.^[21]

In 2012 the Republic of Ireland qualified for their first European Championship since 1988, under Giovanni Trapatoni, and in 2016 they also qualified for the same championship in France, under Martin O Neill, and advanced to the last 16 of the tournament.

Delaney was elected to the executive committee of UEFA in April 2017.

2019

In late March 2019 the FAI announced that Delaney had resigned as CEO, and would take up a specially-created new position of Executive Vice-president, reporting directly to the Board rather than the CEO, and with responsibility, among other things, for international affairs.^{[22][23][24][25]}

On 10 April 2019, Delaney was part of an FAI delegation appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Sport, but after reading a prepared statement, declined to take questions or speak further.^[26]

Delaney remained on full pay in his new role until 28 September, when the FAI announced that he had resigned from the role of Executive Vice-president and all FAI roles, with immediate effect.^[26]

Delaney resigned his UEFA executive committee membership in January 2020.^[27]