By: Luka Perš /Nova24tv
The President of the Court of Audit, Tomaž Vesel, has been flirting with entering Slovenian politics for some time. As it turns out, his moment had just arrived. Vesel is also an ideal candidate for a new face of the transition network. Namely, it has been increasingly showing that the CPC’s legally unsustainable decision to combine the position of president of the Court of Audit with his function as chairman of the FIFA International Audit and Compliance Committee, where Vesel earns $246,000 gross a year for side work, is part of the plan.
Tomaž Vesel was never a noticeable player on the Slovenian political stage. He was considered an official who did not attract the attention of the Slovenian public. This was the case during the presidency of Igor Šoltes at the Court of Audit, when Vesel was only his deputy. In 2013, with the help of the votes of the current largest government party, he became President of the Court of Audit. His term expires in mid-2022. Regular parliamentary elections are also scheduled at that time.
It is increasingly showing that Vesel has created his own influential business and political network with players in the transition network during his tenure as head of the Court of Audit. Among the central names are definitely the definitively convicted media tycoon Martin Odlazek and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin. Our sources also informed us that Vesel has a weekend house in Piran close to the influential player of the health lobby Borut Miklavčič.
Tomaž Vesel should not occupy a position at FIFA at all
The saga of Vesel’s service began in 2016. At the FIFA Congress, he was elected chairman of the Audit and Compliance Committee at the International Football Association (FIFA). Even then, he should not have held this position at all, because the FIFA rules explicitly state that this position can only be held by someone who has not previously worked for five years in football in any position. However, it has been proven that Vesel was appointed vice-president of the Youth Football Commission in the second term of Aleksandar Čeferin. The current head of the RČ was elected to this position in 2015.
Vesel quickly became embroiled in a scandal as he covered a strange flight of his boss at FIFA, Gianni Infantino from Mexico to Switzerland for $246,000. Infantino gave excuses for himself that he had to go to an emergency meeting with Čeferin in Switzerland. It quickly turned out that the current president of FIFA had lied, as Čeferin was on a business trip to Armenia. The controversial flight was covered by Vesel in his report.
Tomaž Vesel was also threatened with a ban on performing football functions for the rest of his life. In 2018, high-ranking FIFA officials Tomaž Vesel and Marco Villiger filed a lawsuit against FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura of Senegal. The accusation was rejected by the FIFA Ethics Committee. Both Vesel and Villinger were facing serious legal consequences, Norwegian Josimar reported in 2018 in an article Unfriendly fire under FIFA.
Legal experts confirmed for Josimar that Tomaž Vesel could face a ban on performing his lifelong function in football due to the false accusation.
The cause for attack on Samoura was an accusation that she was a family relative of former Liverpool striker, Senegalese El Hadji Diouf. The former top striker of the English football giant was the ambassador for the promotion of Morocco’s candidacy for the 2026 World Cup. They both denied the allegations and called them ridiculous. Should this link exist, the FIFA Ethics Committee would resolutely remove both Samoura and Diouf. However, no family relationships have been proven between them. The whole accusation turned out to be frivolous when Diof said he was baptised as Diallo.
Tomaž Vesel therefore violated Article 61.3 of the FIFA Code of Ethics. It states that any person who lodges a complaint against a person whom he knows to be innocent or in any other way takes malicious steps related to the initiation of proceedings under this Code shall be sanctioned.
Did the CPC “cover” Vesel’s afternoon earnings for the planned political project?
The first hole in the story appears at the outset, as neither Vesel nor the CPC submitted a written permission to operate. The National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia also did not give the same consent to Vesel to perform activities. Several legal experts, experts in Slovenian legislation and experts on corruption confirmed that Vesel violated several articles of Slovenian and European legislation in the case of his work at FIFA.
It also does not make sense that Vesel has repeatedly said that he has always paid taxes on his income in Switzerland in Slovenia, but he claims that his function is not a gainful activity. All the words of Vesel were washed out when we proved in the case of a court decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, where it is repeatedly written that FIFA is an economic association and carries out a gainful activity. Only disbelieving Tomažs can believe that an organisation with more than six billion dollars in annual revenue is a non-profit organisation.
And the highlight is Vesel’s annual payment at FIFA. Does he really pay taxes in Slovenia, as he has repeatedly stated in public, is he performing a gainful activity? Why does the president of the Court of Audit not confess his sins, resign and embark on his new political adventure as the new chosen one of the transition network is a question for 246 thousand dollars a year. At least until the next parliamentary elections.