Jordanian whistleblower Abdullah Ibhais has been released after being detained for three years in Doha, Qatar. In interviews with Forbes, The Independent and other outlets in May 2025, Ibhais has said he will sue FIFA and his employer, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy for his detention, which was declared to be arbitrary by the UN Working Group on Arbirtrary Detention in July 2024.

Ibhais was accused of misuse of monetary funds and accepting a bribe in 2019 in the run up to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Human rights organisations said there was no evidence for this other than an allegedly coerced confession, and Ibhais maintains his detention was in retaliation of investigating migrant workers’ complaints of labour rights violations and his criticism of the organisation's handling of a large strike in August 2019. As reported in Josimar and Sportschau, Whatsapp communications demonstrate Ibhais pushed back against a suggestion that the Supreme Committee deny publicly that their workers were involved in the strike.

Ibhais was reportedly called to a meeting by the Supreme Committee, where officers from the Criminal Investigations Department arrested him and interrogated him in an interview during which he was allegedly threatened with a state security prosecution, prevented from accessing a lawyer and coerced into signing a confession. Human Rights Watch reported Ibhais did not receive legal assistance for nine months after his initial arrest.

In 2021, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited FIFA to respond to the case; its responses can be read below.

In December 2021, Ibhais was sentenced to three years imprisonment at a sentencing during which he was not present. Throughout 2022, human rights organisations called for a fair hearing amid serious violations of his right to a fair trial.

The UN Working Group on Arbirtrary Detention declared in July 2024 that Ibhais' detention met three categories for determining arbitrary detention: it lacked legal basis, it resulted from the exercise of his freedom of opinion and expression, and authorities violated several international norms relating to the right to a fair trial. Ibhais’ family called on FIFA sponsors to intervene and put pressure on FIFA. The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre contacted the 19 sponsors and partners of FIFA to invite them to respond – see responses from Adidas, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s here.

Following Ibhais’ release in March 2025, he describes the abusive conditions he experienced during his detention, including physical violence, being kept in darkness, and being denied sleep for 96 hours in freezing temperatures. FIFA did not comment when contacted by The Independent and Forbes.