"Don't be afraid to solve the problem, don't be silent about it. When something like that happens, don't let him coach again." That's former 1. FC Slovako player Kristyna Janku, and UEFA has now listened.
Petr Vlachovsky, 42, the former coach of 1. FC Slovako Women, has been handed a lifetime ban from all football-related activity by UEFA following an investigation into how he used a miniature camera hidden in his backpack to secretly record 15 of his own players — the youngest just 17 years old — showering and changing in locker rooms. The filming took place across four years, between 2019 and 2023.
What UEFA found, and what they're asking for next
UEFA's ethics and disciplinary inspector found Vlachovsky in violation of the basic rules of decent conduct and guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute under Articles 11(1), 11(2)(b) and (d) of their disciplinary regulations. The governing body has also called on FIFA to extend the ban globally and has urged the Czech Republic's football association (FACR) to revoke his coaching licence entirely.
FIFPRO put it plainly in April. "It's important to name it for what it is," said legal counsel Barbara Mere Carrion. "Despite the fact that it's non-contact sexual abuse, it's still sexual abuse."
She's right. And the legal record makes the severity undeniable. Vlachovsky was arrested in 2023. A court awarded 20,000 CZK — roughly $940 — in compensation to 13 of the affected players, a figure that feels embarrassingly low given what was done. Then in May 2025, a criminal court handed him a suspended one-year prison sentence, a five-year domestic coaching ban, and found him guilty of possessing child pornography material on his computer.
The gaps that still need closing
The FACR finds itself unable to sanction Vlachovsky further because he is no longer a member of the federation — a loophole that exposes exactly how ill-equipped football's governance structures are for cases like this. The Czech players' union, CAFH, has already submitted proposals to tighten disciplinary regulations around sexual abuse and abuse of position. The federation hasn't responded.
FIFA has yet to formally extend the ban worldwide. A spokesperson said the organization "takes any allegation of misconduct extremely seriously" — the kind of careful non-answer that means the real pressure is still being applied behind the scenes.
UEFA's lifetime ban is the right call. But the $940 compensation, the suspended sentence, and the federation's silence on reform tell you this story isn't fully resolved yet.
