Former Chilean footballer Arturo Salah is the new president of Chile's football association, replacing Sergio Jadue, who abandoned his post last year when he was investigated for bribery.

An AFP report published by Yahoo Sports noted that Salah was elected on Monday by the Chile National Football Association. He will serve a three-year term, as per the association's spokesperson Antonio Martinez.

Emol added that Salah beat Pablo Milad after he got 28 votes versus the 16 that his rival got. Others who joined the election were Sebastián Moreno, Gaspar Goicoolea, Aldo Corradossi, Andrés Fazzio, Juan Carlos Silva and Hugo Muñoz.

"This is a very difficult challenge, a very complex one. We are responsible for recovering Chilean football, restoring its credibility, recovering honor," Salah said in the AFP report.

It was also noted that the new president will have the tough job of encouraging national coach Jorge Sampaoli to remain in his job as the country bids for the 2016 World Cup.

Jadue resigned from his job and also left the country last November. He claimed that he went into witness protection in the United States.

According to the Associated Press, Jadue took a 20-day medical leave last November after the investigation on bribery allegations against him started.

He earlier defended himself and even gave an explanation for his previous travels to Brazil.

"I traveled. 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," he said in the Associated Press report.

AFP reported that 16 Latin American football officials have been indicted by United States authorities last month for accepting bribes in return for contract broadcast rights contracts.

BBC noted that among those charged for "criminal schemes involving well over $200m (£132m) in bribes and kickbacks" are former Brazil federation heads, Ricardo Teixeira, Ariel Alvarado, Rafael Callejas, Bryan Jimenez, Rafael Salguero, Hector Trujillo, Reynaldo Vasquez, Manuel Burga, Carlos Chavez, Marco Polo del Nero, Eduardo Deluca, Jose Luis Meiszner, Romer Osuna, Alfredo Hawit and Juan Angel Napout.

With the arrests, US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, said the betrayal of trust was "outrageous."

She claimed that the scale of corruption in the FIFA scandal was "unconscionable."

"This announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: you will not wait us out; you will not escape our focus," Lynch said in the BBC report.