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The future of the Scottish Football Association's compliance officer role will be considered early next year after Clare Whyte's decision to resign.

The former procurator fiscal depute is leaving the governing body in January to "take up a new opportunity".

Incidents missed by match officials and reviewed by the compliance officer have at times proved controversial.

As part of the SFA's strategic review, the role could remain unchanged, but other options will be considered.

On announcing Whyte's departure and praising her work with the SFA since being appointed in November 2018, chief executive Ian Maxwell said: "In what is a high-pressure position in a relentless environment, she has shown professionalism and resilience.

"We will begin the process of recruiting a replacement in early course."

Maxwell publicly defended Whyte, the SFA's third compliance officer, in February 2019 after claiming she had been the subject of "unacceptable" and "grossly unfair" personal criticism.

Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson was one of those critical of decisions, saying there was confusion and inconsistency in the SFA's disciplinary procedures, and claimed Whyte was mainly picking up incidents highlighted on television.

The compliance officer decides which incidents or behaviour are worthy of going before a disciplinary tribunal after consulting with three former category one referees about on-field incidents.

Maxwell previously stressed that there was a major misunderstanding of Whyte's role, which was to "act independently and in accordance with the rule book".

"Contrary to opinion, the compliance officer does not offer any judgement on any incident," he said.

"The role of compliance officer is to ensure that all those involved in association football in Scotland observe the disciplinary rules, which includes reviewing misconduct missed by match officials and to subsequently raise a notice of complaint where appropriate."