Emma English called full-time on her engagement to former FAI chief John Delaney because she felt he “let her down badly”.

The fallen soccer supremo was left devastated when the stunning ex-model showed him the red card.

A source told the Irish Mirror: “She decided to end the relationship and she wants to move on with her life.

“She was completely in love with him but she just had enough and had to walk away.

“She wasn’t happy about certain things. She felt he let her down badly in some things and she wasn’t prepared to accept it.”

The pair had been together since 2014 and got engaged in New York in October 2017 when Delaney went down on one knee and proposed.

He also purchased a spectacular €800,000 house near Aughrim in Co Wicklow where he hoped they would share their lives together.

However, sources close to the couple have now confirmed Emma dumped her 52-year-old fiance in 2018.

The relationship ended before Delaney’s fall from grace following revelations of financial chaos that plunged the FAI into crisis last year.

A source said: “They had a great relationship. She helped stabilise his life and had him on the right track but it all went pear-shaped.

“He didn’t know how good he had it with Emma, he had a really good person, she is a real lady.

“He let her down very badly and she couldn’t come back from that.

“She has been through a lot this past year and there is no going back from what she went through with him.”

It’s understood Delaney tried and failed to win the beautiful blonde businesswoman back on several occasions.

They even met last July during a stay at a hotel in Donegal.

A source said Emma, in her early 40s, was “devastated” about the
break-up but she still wasn’t prepared to take him back.

She had previously described the former FAI boss as the “love of her life”.

Sources revealed the former model was loyal and devoted to him during their five-year relationship.

One added: “Emma had been a rock to John.  She was loyal and stood by him as his career in the FAI and UEFA took off.

“She is in a much better place in her life since she ended their relationship.

“She can concentrate on her own career again and her four children.  She is picking up the pieces of her life and moving on.”

The pair became a glamorous fixture in celebrity social circles over the past five years.

They also jetted around the globe together as Delaney climbed world soccer’s corporate ladder.

But sources said Emma was never impressed with the perks of the FAI chief’s glittering career.

One added: “Contrary to the perception, Emma is a very normal, grounded person. She was never interested in the lifestyle or the partying, she was just completely in love and wanted to support John.

“John didn’t appreciate what he had in Emma and what she brought to their relationship, he’s lost a really great person in his life.

“She was a rock to him and he came to depend on her a lot.”

The couple first met in 2013 when Delaney took part in a charity dancing show which PR and events organiser Emma was running.

Following a brief friendship they quickly became an item.

Emma previously told RSVP magazine: “I have met my soulmate. At times, I find it hard to describe or put into words the love we share with each other.

“We are blessed to have found what we have found in each other.

“People connect and fall in love in different ways, so to me it’s down to the individual’s personal experiences and what love means to the individual.

“In my experience, I have only ever really fallen in love once in my life.” Emma is believed to have been instrumental in supporting John in the rise of his career, advising him and helping him as he climbed the career ladder to the summit of world sport before his spectacular downfall.

A source said: “She was an important figure in his life in a very positive way.”

Delaney rubbed shoulders with some of the most powerful sports’ executives in the world including controversial FIFA boss Sepp Blatter.

He once proudly recalled introducing his partner to the soccer supremo and said in a radio interview: “He met Emma, my partner, in Vienna recently. He stared at her for seven or eight seconds and he said, ‘I approve of your new girlfriend’. I asked him to, ‘Move on, move on please’.

“She is a great girl, I love her very much. It was an extraordinary moment.”

He also worked alongside controversial Irish Olympics chief Pat Hickey as vice president of the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Delaney was in Rio in Brazil for the 2016 Games when the veteran sports executive was arrested by police probing ticket irregularities.

Loyal Emma remained at his side as his troubled reign at the FAI started to crumble.

She was sitting next to him in the Aviva Stadium when fans staged a protest by throwing tennis balls on the pitch as Ireland played Georgia in a Euro 2020 qualifier last year.

She often accompanied him on his travels, including to the Euro 2016 finals in France. The couple also enjoyed five-star trips to hotspots like Marbella.

However, the relationship also came with a darker side for Emma, who was previously married to businessman James English and has recently reverted to using her maiden name Kevlin.

She told how she was subject to “vile and disgusting comments” from online trolls.

Emma declined to comment to the Irish Mirror last night.

Fred says:  Where does one begin? Delaney needs to answer many Questions, people are Entitled to Respect, Where is all the Monies? John you became a Legend in your own mind, but now you landed hopefully on Planet Morals? Emma this blog has no issues with you, you seem a decent Woman, but please dont play the Victim, you enjoyed the Travel, the top Hotels, the overall Limelight, lets be honest about that. Now people and their Tax monies must clean up after Delaney, and try and find a way forward for the survival of the FAI, in the meantime Delaney could give back whatever monies he has bestowed upon himself during the years he felt he was Nero? Pat Flanagan articles are most interesting, when he asks, when is a Crime not a Crime. Well this is Ireland, and sadly Corruption is Legal, Fred