Mr Louis Kilcoyne accepted defeat after losing a vote of confidence in his presidency of the Football Association of Ireland early this morning.
Mr Kilcoyne and the former treasurer of the FAI, Mr Joe Delaney, were both defeated after a secret ballot of members of the FAIs senior council.
Three other FAI officers, who had resigned before the meeting, were reinstated after winning the support of the 47 council members who voted.
Mr Pat Quigley is to serve as acting president until another FAI meeting on March 19th.
The nine-and-a-half-hour meeting at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin ended at 3.30 a.m. Afterwards Mr Kilcoyne emerged to face the media, flanked by his emotional members of his family and his friend Mr Eamon Dunphy.
"I had the honour and the privilege to be president of the Football Association of Ireland. I was proud to be President of the Football Association of Ireland."
"The council had made its decision. I respect that decision. I accept that decision. Thank you very much and goodnight."
The results of the ballot remained a secret. Mr Brendan Menton, the acting FAI general secretary, said he was the only person Who knew the figures and he would not be revealing them.
Along with Mr Quigley, Mr Des Casey and Mr Michael Hyland were reinstated.
Mr Menton said that the accountancy firm which he brought in to investigate the FAI's finances would continue its work for another four weeks. He said he did not intend publishing either the interim report which the firm prepared for last night's meeting, or its final report.
Earlier, Mr Delaney had admitted to the meeting that he had had to pay £210,000 to the association after dealing with a ticket tout who "vanished".
Mr Delaney - who previously said he had paid over £110,000 - told the meeting he made two credit transfers to the FAI in November 1994. The total was made up of £100,000 which he retrieved from the tout before his disappearance and £110,000 which, Mr Delaney said, he failed to get from the tout and, therefore, supplied from his own funds.
He also said the FAI made a $49,000 (£31,000) "surplus" by charging fans extra for tickets for the 1994 World Cup in the US. The FAI had "prudently added a small premium to the ticket prices as a hedge against currency", he said.