The African football confederation CAF will back Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain for the presidential election at the ruling body FIFA in three weeks.
"CAF decided to backs Sheikh Salman for the FIFA presidential elections," the confederation tweeted after an executive committee meeting in Kigali.
The 54 African votes are considered crucial in order to get a majority of votes from the 209 member federations at the February 27 ballot in Zurich at an extraordinary FIFA congress.
Friday's decision does however not automatically mean that all African members will vote for Sheikh Salman who also has big support from the Asian confederation he presides over.
The other other four candidates to succeed Joseph Blatter are UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino, Frenchman Jerome Champagne, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan and South African Tokyo Sexwale.
Sheikh Salman and Infantino, who has a broad backing in Europe and the support from central and South America, are seen as the frontrunners.
Friday's decision could prompt Sexwale to drop out of the race over lacking support from his home continent.
