NBL executive Takashi Yamaya stepped down as chief operating officer, while league president Mitsuru Maruo also expressed his intention of resigning, the league announced on Wednesday.

The league issued a statement that the two made the decision to take responsibility for the the managerial change of the Tsukuba Robots, an Eastern Conference club plagued by financial woes. The league took over management of the club earlier this month.

Maruo, who also serves as the Japan Basketball Association's acting president, will remain in his post at the league, which opened its second season in on Oct. 10, until it finds a successor.

Yamaya, a former football player for the Recruit Seagulls (predecessor of the X League's Obic Seagulls), became the president for the Link Tochigi Brex before he took the COO position at the NBL, which inaugurated in the 2013-14 season as the successor to the JBL. Under the 44-year-old Yamaya, the Brex won the JBL championship in the 2009-10 campaign, their second year in the top-tier circuit.

The NBL has found a new managing company to run the Ibaraki Prefecture-based Robots, Jiji Press reported.