HANNAH DINGLEY IS to leave her role as head of women’s and girls’ football at the FAI after handing in her resignation just one year in the job.

Less than a month after chief football officer Marc Canham announced his decision to depart after three years at the helm, Dingley is also set to return to Britain.

The Welsh native had an interim spell in charge of Forest Green Rovers, becoming the first woman to manager senior men’s team in England’s professional pyramid, before joining the FAI last May.

Dingley arrived at the association to fill the void left by Eileen Gleeson after she was appointed permanent manager of the senior women’s international team.

While Gleeson has since been replaced by Carla Ward, she is understood to still be a FAI employee, although chief executive David Courell and Canham sidestepped that issue during recent media interviews.

It was only in March that Dingley made her first significant appearance in the job, launching the FAI’s Women & Girls’ Football Action Plan at the Mansion House.

Now the FAI are beginning another recruitment process for a senior figure, although Canham’s successor could be announced before he departs at the end of this month.