Wed, March 04, 2026
Calls for Czech coach to be banned for life for filming female footballers in changing room and showers, announced one week after coach at Austrian club was found guilty of the same crime
The Czech Association of Football Players (CAFH) has called for Czech coach, Petr Vlachovsky, who worked at FC Slovacko for almost 15 years, to receive a lifetime ban from football for filming his female footballers in the changing room and showers with a hidden camera across four years after he evaded jail and was instead given a suspended one-year prison sentence and a five-year domestic coaching ban in 2025, meaning he can still coach abroad as well. Police discovered the covertly filmed footage online and arrested him in 2023.
Vlachovsky, once voted the best women's coach in the Czech Republic, filmed a girl from Slovacko who was 17 years old and also had around 13 other victims. He was also found guilty of possessing child sexual abuse content.
This comes just a week after a former official who worked at Altach, a top-division Austrian football club, between 2020-2025, was given a seven-month suspended prison sentence and told to pay female footballers €625 each after secretly filming them and taking photos of them in a changing room, gym and shower. He was also fined €1,200 (£1,046), according to The Guardian.
Eleni Rittmann, who previously played for Altach, expressed that she was left “speechless” by the former official’s punishment. She stated on Instagram: “The perpetrator was not only a top-level referee in Switzerland but also an official at Altach. And that is where he filmed players, including minors. I then ask myself, is this an appropriate punishment?...
I also ask myself, does such a punishment act as a deterrent for others? We felt secure in our dressing room, and this hurt our privacy so badly that some of us do not feel safe in public showers even now. For me this is not a strong enough signal for something that is not tolerated in our society.”
CAFH chair, Marketa Vochoska Haindlova, expressed a similar sentiment about the Czech case: “After careful consideration and at the players’ direction, we made the entire case public. Even though the media attention created additional pressure on the players, it is also an important step to create awareness of the broader issue of abuse in sports, and work towards the prevention of this happening again…
The sentence of one year’s suspended imprisonment with a three-year deferral does not send the right signal. The five-year ban on coaching – only applicable in Czech Republic – is also insufficient…
The ban from coaching is where I really believe our focus should be at, jointly with FIFPRO [International Federation of Professional Footballers] and other stakeholders. There must be a zero-tolerance policy here to send a clear signal that such behaviour will never be tolerated and swiftly eradicated…
Our goal is to use this case to push for an amendment that will call for a lifetime ban for all sexual offenders. A one strike policy must apply, and a lifetime ban must be the only option.”
FIFPRO said in a statement: “The Czech player union CAFH has been closely supporting the players since Vlachovsky’s arrest. Because the Czech criminal process and the Czech FA’s administrative proceedings are separate and can run in parallel, the union is challenging the Czech FA to implement a lifetime football ban for Vlachovsky and all sexual offenders. FIFPRO is exploring possible legal avenues on behalf of players to achieve a global ban…
The victims did not have the opportunity to attend a public trial and could not file an appeal against what players view as extremely lenient sentencing.”
