It comes as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed all eight candidates for their four slots on the Council have passed eligibility checks, including Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.

Sorokin believes it is vital Russia secures a place on the ruling body after Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko was barred from being a candidate earlier this month.

Mutko, the country's former Sports Minister, failed an eligibility check due to his role within the Government.

UEFA have dented Sorokin's hopes for the time being, confirming in a statement that he would "not be one of the European candidates for the available FIFA Council seats during elections at the 41st Ordinary UEFA Congress in Helsinki on 5 April".

European football's governing body said last week that they would have to hold an Extraordinary Congress to elect an official to serve in their fourth vacant FIFA Council seat following the withdrawal of Iceland's Geir Thorsteinsson.

The decision from Thorsteinsson left European football's governing body with just three candidates for four positions on the body.

It is therefore feasible that Sorokin could enter the running for the final place, provided he is nominated by the Russian Football Union (RFU), led by Mutko.

Sorokin, who previously served as secretary general of the RFU, told Russian news agency R-Sport that he hoped he would be put forward for the role.

"Theoretically, this option (nominating me instead Mutko) is possible, for us the most important thing is that Russia has not lost a place on the board after certain events," he said.

Hungary's Sandor Csyani, Cyprus' Costakis Koutsokoumnis and Montenegro's Dejan Savicevic are set to be elected unopposed to the FIFA Council during UEFA's Congress in Helsinki next month.

Each will serve four-year terms, with Germany’s Reinhard Grindel, who is set to replace banned predecessor Wolfgang Niersbach, the only candidate for the two-year role.

The person who is elected at the Extraordinary Congress - the date and location of which has not yet been announced - will complete UEFA's eight-strong contingent on the 37-member FIFA Council.

UEFA do have the power to allow its Executive Committee to organise a ballot for such an election but FIFA's statutes require a four-month campaign that allows time to conduct eligibility checks on potential candidates.

FIFA's Governance Committee has today informed the eight officials seeking a Council place from the AFC have all been given the green light to stand in the election on May 8.

Sheikh Ahmad, who is bidding for re-election, will go up against China's Zhang Jian, South Korea's Mong Gyu Chung and Mariano V Araneta of the Philippines for three berths.

Australia's Moya Dodd, Bangladesh's Mahfuza Akhter Kiron, North Korea's Han Un Gyong and Susan Shalabi Molano of Palestine are contesting the one available place reserved for a woman.

Sheikh Ahmad could have been excluded from the race as the Kuwait Football Association (KFA) remains suspended from FIFA after a new law led to the dissolution of existing bodies, including the Kuwait Olympic Committee (KOC), and their replacement with Government-backed rivals.

The AFC had initially scheduled Council elections for February 28 at an Extraordinary Congress in Kuala Lumpur but the governing body announced the meeting had been cancelled in November.

It marked the second postponement of the vote after the AFC Extraordinary Congress in Goa in September was abandoned when the membership voted against the agenda.