Meanwhile members of Ibhais' family have criticised the "callous indifference" to this case of football's world governing body, FIFA.

Ibhais, a former media manager for the Qatar 2022 World Cup Organising Committee, was arrested for bribery in November 2019, shortly after voicing his concerns, and on November 29 lost a final appeal.

A formal submission shared with the UN Working Group today argues that Ibhais has been arbitrarily detained on the basis of a demonstrably unfair trial.

Ibhais, who is now one year into a three-year jail sentence, has alleged that he is the victim of a malicious prosecution based on the stance he took and that Qatari state security officers coerced him into a confession without a lawyer present.

FairSquare co-director Nick McGeehan said: "Three Qatari courts have now convicted Abdullah Ibhais in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing, and despite credible allegations of a coerced confession.

"The fact that FIFA has yet to even call for Ibhais to receive a fair trial is another indictment of the organisation's further decline under Gianni Infantino."

Speaking today on a webinar call, McGeehan responded to an insidethegames query about what would happen if the UN Working Group agrees with FairSquare's assessment of the case by saying: "We would hope that this would just add to the pressure over the case.

"If the Working Group agrees with us they can contact the Qatari state directly because they have concerns over the well-being of Abdullah.

"We hope they will agree with us that this is an open-and-shut case.

"But depending on their workload it could take several months until we hear from them."

McGeehan added that Ibhais had gone in hunger strike for a worrying long period of time once he had been incarcerated, and that he was now taking medication after suffering from mood swings, having been kept for some time in solitary confinement.

Asked what his message to FIFA would be, he responded: "Why wont they specifically call for a fair trial in this case?

"Why don’t they do that?

"This case was instigated by their partner.

"FIFA don’t have to say anything about what they think of the merits of this case but it is absolutely incumbent on them to specifically demand that this person gets a fair trial.

"What they have said so far is meaningless.

"As long as FIFA do not do this they are implicated in this denial of justice."

Asked on his view of the FIFA President, McGeehan responded: "Infantino's conduct in the last few months has been shameful, he has been a disgrace to FIFA."

Asked how he thought Qatar's potential bid for the 2036 Olympics should be viewed, McGeehan responded: "The Qatari authorities have been asked to recompense migrant workers who have lost their lives or livelihoods, in the form of wages, while working on 2022 World Cup construction.

"They have refused to do that.

"I think they should be rejected out of hand until they start negotiations on that matter to make remedy to the people who have suffered in the construction of these World Cup stadiums."

FairSquare, which has called on FIFA to call for the immediate release of Ibhais, added in a release: "Ibhais, a 36-year old husband and father of two boys, aged four and six, is serving his sentence in a Doha jail despite no evidence he has done anything wrong and a grossly unfair trial.

"In August 2019, after a large group of migrant workers in the Al-Shahaniya labour camp went on strike in protest of unpaid wages, Ibhais provided evidence to his colleagues in the Supreme Committee that some of the workers were involved in 2022 stadium construction.

"Sharing footage of the workers that he had filmed, Ibhais advised that the Supreme Committee should publicly acknowledge the involvement of their workers and focus on remedying the situation.

"'Lying is not Qatar’s way, and should not be,' he told a senior colleague in one message.

"It was just weeks later, in November 2019, that Qatar’s World Cup organisers submitted a report to the police alleging that Ibhais had been engaged in bribery with the intent to harm state security.

"He was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2021, although the authorities did not immediately execute the custodial sentence.

"In October 2021, after FairSquare and Human Rights Watch had written privately to FIFA to request an intervention on the case, Ibhais went public with his story.

"Authorities arrested him on 12 November 2021.

"His conviction was upheld in December 2021 by an appeal court, which reduced his sentence to three years.

"Ibhais sought support from FIFA via its online whistleblowing platform.

"In November 2021, FIFA stated that 'any person deserves a trial that is fair', and said it would 'continue to follow this matter closely' but made no commitment to supporting Abdullah beyond this."

In a separate statement the Ibhais family said: "Our beloved Abdullah has stood up bravely for his conscience, for his family, for his children, and for a country he thought he was helping to set an example in organising the first World Cup in an Arab State.

"He was unafraid to challenge his superiors.

"Abdullah was trying to showcase Qatar in its best light, to own up to its mistakes, and to do right by them and all the migrant workers who have suffered as a result.

"We never thought he would become a political prisoner.

"Abdullah used FIFA's own systems to speak up; instead, he's been punished.

"We, the family of Abdullah Ibhais, are calling out FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, who once said the World Cup is the voice of the marginalised.

"Your deeds haven't lived up to your words.

"FIFA is complicit in Abdullah's imprisonment and FIFA's silence is tearing apart our family.

"We refuse FIFA's callous indifference.

"We refuse to back down: we're calling today on FIFA to take responsibility and finally own up to this human rights travesty."