The Palestinian Football Association’s president, Jibril Rajoub says a vote aimed at seeing the expulsion of Israel from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) will go ahead as planned.

The Palestinian football chief made the announcement on Wednesday.

“Nothing has changed, the vote is still on the agenda,” Rajoub said.

Rajoub said the scheduled vote would be held on Friday, following a meeting with FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who has been trying to convince Palestine to avoid the vote.

He said the vote would go ahead despite a recent corruption scandal involving FIFA.

Palestine, a FIFA member since 1998, is seeking the expulsion of Israel from the association over Tel Aviv’s restrictions on the movement of Palestinian players.

It also opposes participation in the championships of a number of clubs, which are located in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The vote, which was proposed by Rajoub on May 1, needs a simple majority of over 50 percent of the 209 members in order to succeed.

This comes a week after FIFA’s president traveled to the region to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to have them stop pushing the vote.

Blatter argues that the vote would mix politics with soccer.

Israel’s suspension from FIFA would prevent its team from taking part in the Euro 2016 qualifiers. Its clubs would be barred from the European competition.

SZH/HJL/GHN