Czech coach banned for life by UEFA after secretly filming female players

Petr Vlachovsky, a former head coach at Czech top-tier side 1. FC Slovacko, has been handed a lifetime ban from all football-related activities by UEFA following an investigation into his secret filming of female players.

UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body found Vlachovsky to have breached regulations covering insulting or indecent behaviour and bringing football into disrepute. The European football governing body additionally called for FIFA to extend the ban worldwide and requested that the Czech Republic's football association revoke his coaching licence.

Vlachovsky, 42, used a miniature camera hidden in his backpack to record players showering and changing in various locker rooms before and after practice and matches between 2019 and 2023. According to reports, he filmed between 14 and 15 players, with the youngest aged 17.

The coach was arrested in September 2024 and subsequently convicted in May 2025 without a public hearing. He received a suspended one-year prison sentence and a five-year domestic coaching ban from Czech authorities. Vlachovsky had coached girls and women at 1. FC Slovacko for almost 15 years before his arrest.

The five-year domestic ban prompted calls from the Czech players' union for his punishment to be broadened beyond the national level. UEFA announced on Tuesday that it had appointed an ethics and disciplinary inspector to investigate the allegations and subsequently issued the lifetime ban from exercising any football-related activity.