SANTIAGO, Chile -- Sergio Jadue, the president of the Chilean football federation (ANFP), is taking a 30-day spell of medical leave.
His decision was revealed shortly before the country's investigative police said the authorities wanted to question him and other federation bosses.
Jadue's spell of leave was announced on the official ANFP website, hours after he had returned from a trip to Brazil, denying he had gone there to collaborate with the U.S. authorities in their investigation of corruption in world football.
Chile's investigative police then said some of its members had visited the ANFP headquarters to notify four people that they were wanted for questioning as part of an investigation.
The federation later confirmed on its site that Jadue was one of them.
When he arrived at Santiago airport on Thursday, Jadue told reporters he had no reason to resign and called reports about his whereabouts and his cooperation with U.S. authorities "all part of a typical intrigue."
He said: "I travelled. I was there [in Brazil] 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 soccer."
The federation said its vice-president, Jaime Baeza, would take charge while Jadue was away.
Jadue's leave comes four days after the head of Colombia's football federation, Luis Bedoya, resigned on Monday, citing personal reasons.
Both men have been vice-presidents of the embattled South American Football confederation, CONMEBOL, but were not among the executives named in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation in May.
Hours after the FIFA scandal broke, Jadue declared his innocence even though he was not formally accused of anything in the U.S. Justice Department indictments.