A former women’s football coach in the Czech Republic has been handed a lifetime ban from all football-related activities across Europe after UEFA ruled on a case involving the secret filming of players in locker rooms and showers.

UEFA announced that its Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body had permanently banned former 1. FC Slovácko women’s team coach Petr Vlachovský for serious violations of its disciplinary code.

The ruling significantly expands an earlier punishment issued by a Czech court, which had prohibited Vlachovský from coaching for five years only within the Czech Republic.

According to UEFA, the disciplinary panel found that Vlachovský breached multiple provisions of the organization’s regulations concerning conduct and integrity in football.

The 42-year-old coach was arrested in September 2023 after investigators uncovered that he had secretly recorded female players over several years while they were in private areas including showers and changing rooms.

Police reportedly discovered the material during a separate investigation linked to accounts on an erotic dating platform where illegal content involving minors was also being monitored.

Earlier this year, a Czech court sentenced Vlachovský to a three-year suspended prison term without a public trial. The court also imposed a five-year coaching ban and ordered him to compensate each of the 14 victims with 20,000 Czech crowns.

The sentence drew criticism from several former players, who argued that the punishment was too lenient given the scale and duration of the abuse. Concerns were also raised because the original coaching ban applied only domestically, potentially allowing him to continue working abroad.

UEFA has now closed that possibility by extending the sanction across all European football activities for life.

In its statement, UEFA also confirmed that it had asked FIFA to consider applying the ban worldwide. The European governing body further instructed the Football Association of the Czech Republic to revoke Vlachovský’s coaching license if that process has not already been completed.

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