Nine months ago, just before the last election for FIFA president, the United States Soccer Federation publicly endorsed Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan in his race against Sepp Blatter, the longtime and much-maligned incumbent who went on to win re-election easily. At the time, U.S. Soccer’s endorsement was seen as a bold show of protest against the status quo within the scandal-plagued governing body.

This week, with Mr. Blatter suspended and five candidates, including Prince Ali, vying to replace him, U.S. Soccer is planning to avoid a public endorsement. Barring a late change in that strategy, when the delegate from U.S. Soccer enters the voting booth on Friday morning in Zurich — the federation’s representative will be Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer — his choice will most likely be known to only a handful of U.S. Soccer officials.

All of the candidates have lobbied the federation for its backing. But while the last election was a clear-cut choice — U.S. Soccer was very much aligned with those who wanted a complete overhaul of FIFA — Friday’s vote, with five candidates running on platforms of reform, makes the dynamics of public support trickier.

This much is clear: U.S. Soccer will vote for either Prince Ali or Gianni Infantino, the secretary general of European soccer’s governing body. Mr. Infantino is seen as one of the two front-runners, but supporting the other — Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain — is a nonstarter, according to several federation officials who have been briefed on the organization’s discussions, because of accusations by human rights groups that he failed to protect soccer players in his home nation from a bloody government crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011.