Chile FA head taken sick as police close in over corruption

Sergio Jadue returned from a trip to Brazil and denied he had travelled there to help US authorities in their investigation of corruption in world football.

Chilean Football Federation president Sergio Jadue (Getty Images)

It was announced early yesterday that the president of the Chilean Football Federation was taking medical leave shortly before police said authorities wanted to question him and other federation chiefs.

The federation announced the leave hours after Sergio Jadue returned from a trip to Brazil and denied he had travelled there to help US authorities in their investigation of corruption in world football.

Chile’s equivalent of the FBI then said it visited the headquarters of the federation to tell four officials that they are wanted for questioning.

Jadue told reporters at Santiago’s airport that he was not willing to disclose what he was doing in Brazil.

“I was there for two nights and there was no reason for me to provide any information on it because it’s a private issue, and it has nothing to do with the ANFP, which is concerned with football.”

The federation said its vice-president, Jaime Baeza, will be in charge while Jadue is away on medical leave.

Jadue’s time off comes four days after the head of Colombia’s Football Federation, Luis Bedoya, resigned citing personal reasons. Both have been vice-presidents of the embattled South American Football Confederation, Conmebol, but they were not among the executives named in a US Department of Justice probe in May.

Just hours after the Fifa scandal broke, Jadue declared his innocence, even though he was not formally accused of anything in the US DoJ indictments.

Colombian prosecutors have said they are investigating financial transactions by Bedoya and have requested information from US authorities.

The US Justice Department has indicted 14 officials and businessmen on charges of bribery, racketeering and money laundering. Among them are two former Conmebol presidents, who are fighting extradition to the US

Acting Fifa president Issa Hayatou will remain in his interim post after undergoing a successful kidney transplant.

Hayatou, 69, was appointed as Fifa’s acting president last month following the 90-day suspension of Sepp Blatter.

The Cameroon official, who is also head of the Confederation of African Football, will spend the next few days recovering from the surgery.

“I am very pleased to have been given an encouraging report by the medical staff,” Fifa’s acting secretary general, Markus Kattner, said.

A Fifa statement added: “Issa Hayatou has never hidden the fact that, for several years, he has been suffering from a renal insufficiency, a situation that has not prevented him from fully performing his duties at the heart of world and African football’s governing bodies, without interruption. He will continue to fulfil his role as acting Fifa president as intended.”

Blatter, 79, was discharged from hospital on Thursday after what was described as a “small emotional breakdown”. “He is fine, but he has been told to relax for a few days,” said his advisor, Klaus Stöhlker.