‘They felt like teaching me a lesson, says whistleblower

After three horrific years in a Doha jail, 2022 World Cup worker Abdullah Ibhais wants justice and is trying to sue Fifa and Qatar’s Supreme Committee, he tells Miguel Delaney

- Miguel Delaney

Now that Abdullah Ibhais sits happily in Oslo, enjoying the cool air, he can calmly reflect on the moment he realised his life was changing. The former 2022 World Cup worker - described by Amnesty as a Qatar whistleblower - had been going through the state’s legal process following his November 2021 arrest, and was at that point optimistic there had just been some misunderstanding.

Ibhais describes how, in the middle of the process, one Qatari official came out with the following. “You think you can fight the state?”

Ibhais couldn’t do anything but laugh in shock. “At that moment, I realised how deep the issue was.” The Jordanian national was finally released on 11 March 2025, having served his full sentence. In July 2024, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions declared he had been a victim of arbitrary detention and urged Qatari authorities to release him immediately.

Human rights groups, such as FairSquare, believe his case serves as a prism for the story of that entire World Cup. Ibhais wasn’t just a worker in the preparations for the most-watched sporting event in the world, he was a media manager. Consequently, his case involves the long and controversial build-up, the migrant workers, the media coverage, how Qatar spins, and how Qatar works.

Ibhais’s version is that he went to investigate complaints over workers’ rights, stood up for them by advising the Supreme Committee to acknowledge its role, and found himself the subject of a malicious prosecution. FairSquare say Ibhais provided plenty of evidence for his case.