Fifa’s executive committee is set to debate whether to delay February’s presidential election, after global football was sent into meltdown by the suspension of its three most powerful figures.

Before a crisis meeting of all 54 members of the European football confederation, Uefa, at its headquarters in Switzerland next week Michel D’Hooghe, the Belgian who is a longstanding Fifa executive committee member, said postponing the election was a possibility.

“I am one of the members asking for an emergency meeting of the Fifa ExCo,” he said. “At the moment I have no information about an eventual postponing of the election but perhaps this point could be discussed there.” The meeting has been set for 20 October.

Sepp Blatter, the embattled Fifa president who had promised to step down in February in the face of a slew of corruption allegations, was suspended by the organisation’s ethics committee for 90 days on Thursday.

Michel Platini, the Uefa president who is alleged to have accepted a £1.3m “disloyal payment” from Blatter, and Jérôme Valcke, the Fifa secretary general embroiled in allegations around the resale of World Cup tickets, received the same sanction. All deny any wrongdoing.

Behind the scenes, it is understood that the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, has intensified his efforts to persuade Fifa of the merits of installing an external, respected figure as president to clean up the organisation.

The biggest European clubs also joined the fray on Friday, saying that they should be part of any solution. “The European Club Association calls on everybody who loves football to open the doors to real reform and transparency allowing the game to move forward,” it said.

The possible delay of the presidential election, set for 26 February, would be one of the items on the agenda of an emergency Fifa executive committee meeting that is being called for by European members including the FA director David Gill and the German Wolfgang Niersbach.

Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini and Jérôme Valcke suspended by Fifa. Guardian

The deadline for nominations for candidates for the Fifa presidency is due to end on 26 October. Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan is the only declared candidate not currently suspended.

The Asian football chief Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, from Bahrain, is pondering whether to run, as is Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, another Fifa ExCo member.

However, the merits of calling for the election to be postponed are likely to be hotly debated given that it could extend the tenure of either Blatter or his interim replacement, Issa Hayatou.

The Cameroonian, head of the Confederation of African Football since 1988, was censured by the International Olympic Committee over his role in the ISL bribery affair. He denied corruption.

Campaign groups including Transparency International continue to call for an external reform process led by a respected independent figure.

As things stand, Blatter’s ban is due to end in January or February – depending on whether the ethics committee invokes an extra 45 days while it continues its investigations. That would leave Blatter and Platini free to return just five days before the scheduled election date.

Blatter, who was Fifa president for 17 years, has lodged an appeal against his sanction and it is understood that Platini will do the same before Saturday’s deadline.

It will be heard by Fifa’s appeals committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden of Bermuda and staffed by football administrators.

Blatter and Platini, his one-time protege turned bitter rival, have been under pressure since the Swiss Attorney General accused the Swiss of making a £1.3m payment in 2011 that was against the interests of Fifa. Blatter is also accused of doing a deal with the disgraced former Fifa official Jack Warner to sell TV rights below their market value but he denies wrongdoing.

Uefa’s members will discuss their position at next week’s meeting. However, Platini will not be present having promised not to carry out official duties “for the time being” under the terms of his ban.

Meanwhile, the Korean billionaire Chung Mong-joon, who had intended to run for the presidency but was given a six-year ban on Thursday, has said he will take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and sue the ethics committee.