Ibhais says he was travelling to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum and give evidence to a United States federal court in a human-trafficking case linked to the World Cup. Instead, he says, he was taken to an interrogation room and threatened with imprisonment.
The allegation is not independently confirmed, but it extends a long-running dispute over how dissent was handled around the tournament. Ibhais says the pressure began after he challenged the official narrative about workers involved in World Cup infrastructure.
According to his account, he saw migrant workers strike after going months without wages. He says some lacked food, drinking water and money to support their families, while senior figures asked him to present a more favourable version of events and deny that the workers were involved in World Cup projects.
Ibhais says he refused. He was later accused in Qatar of leaking defence secrets and conspiring with foreign countries, before being convicted on a lesser corruption charge and spending three and a half years in prison. He also says a United Nations working group described his detention as arbitrary and his trial as unfair.
Ibhais criticises for failing to intervene, while celebrating Qatar 2022 as “a melhor Copa de todas”. His argument is that football cannot discuss the tournament’s stadiums, atmosphere and global reach without also confronting the people who built it.
As future World Cups approach, the next test will be whether governing bodies address these allegations openly-and whether migrant workers’ experiences remain part of football’s official history rather than a footnote.