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Senior figures in African football have held talks with Fifa’s general secretary, Mattias Grafström, to sound out his interest in standing against Gianni Infantino, the Guardian can reveal.

As many as 15 federations in Africa are also said to be ready to turn their backs on Infantino when he seeks re-election as Fifa president next year, despite the Confederation of Africa Football (Caf) claiming that its executive committee (exco) had “unanimously reconfirmed” its support for the under-fire 56-year-old.

Grafström initially distanced himself from Infantino’s Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), with the second-in-command of world football’s governing body telling staff that “individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go” in a memo three days after the plan to sell off 20% of the World Cup’s commercial rights was abandoned. The 45-year-old Swede has since fallen into line, having signed a letter of “full support” for Infantino 24 hours later before informing employees in an email that chief operating officer Kevin Lamour – who heavily criticised the FFE proposal – had been sacked.

But it is understood that Grafström’s initial opposition to the controversial plans encouraged some of Infantino’s opponents in Africa to attempt to gauge his willingness to stand against him in next year’s election. Two presidents of African federations spoke to Grafström on the phone separately last week, although he is said to have been surprised to be approached and was non-committal either way at this stage.

“They think that Matthias can group all the continents together and then go forward,” a source who is a member of the exco told the Guardian. “I don’t know what his position is right now but if he can bring all these people together then he would get some support. Matthias is a very open-minded guy and he always listens to what we think.”

Grafström, who did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment, was appointed as Fifa’s permanent general secretary in May 2024 after previously serving in an interim role and has worked closely with Caf and some African federations over the past two years, although it remains to be seen if he emerges as a rival for the presidency.

Caf has traditionally been a stronghold for Infantino but it is understood that discontent has been growing in several countries after the decision to only stage the Africa Cup of Nations every four years rather than two that many believe was imposed on them by Fifa at the end of last year.

Multiple sources have told the Guardian that only four of the 21 exco members publicly declared their support for Infantino at their most recent meeting on 7 August, including Caf president, Patrice Motsepe, and vice-president, Fouzi Lekjaa, from Morocco. “The rest remained silent,” said one who attended the meeting. “People don’t want to give their views in public because they are waiting to see what happens.”

With 54 members in total, Africa could hold the key to attempts to unseat Infantino given that any opponent would require 106 of the 211 Fifa members to vote against him. Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, which has voiced its opposition to Infantino in alliance with Uefa and Concacaf, is also believed to still have significant support from within Africa having lost to Infantino in the 2015 elections. “If Salman is coming for sure he’s going to be elected,” the source added. “If Europe will give him support, he will get the support from Asia, he will get support from Concacaf. And he will get some support from Africa. For sure, 10 to 15 people will vote for Salman.”

But any prospective opponents to Infantino have been warned they will have to show their support for football on the continent by coming up with a similar plan to FFE, which it was hoped would result in around $20m a year being given to each association.

“If Uefa or anyone else has something better, they should propose it – if anyone has anything better than Infantino then people will vote for them,” said the exco member. “If someone will come and say, ‘OK we are going to have an agreement with Uefa that means we support poor countries so we can build good infrastructures there’ then they will support him.”