Fifa has extended worldwide the ban on a former match official and SCR Altach employee found guilty of taking secret videos and photographs of members of the club’s women’s team.
In February, a regional court in Feldkirch, Austria, handed the man a seven-month suspended prison sentence, a €1,200 (£1,046) fine and ordered him to pay the victims €625 (£545) each in compensation after he was found guilty of filming and taking photographs of players, including minors, in the changing room, gym and showers of Altach’s women’s team between 2018 and 2025.
The sentence provoked outrage from former Altach players and more widely in Austria. After a request from the Austrian players’ union (VdF) and the global players’ union Fifpro, the Fifa disciplinary committee extended on 4 August the man’s ban from football-related activities to a global one.
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The man did not request a statement of the reasons for the decision within a prescribed timeframe, so the decision has become binding and final. Federations are able to ban individuals from football related activities only in their respective countries.
Christos Papadimitriou, the women’s football coordinator at the VdF, said: “Anyone who secretly films players in the locker room crosses a clear line. The fact that the ban now applies worldwide sends an important signal: those who seriously violate players’ rights cannot escape the consequences by moving abroad.”
The Czech players’ union, CAFH, has called for a lifetime ban from all football-related activities for Petr Vlachovsky, the former coach of FC Slovacko, who was convicted of similar offences in addition to being in possession of child sexual abuse material. Vlachovsky was convicted in May 2025 and handed a suspended one-year prison sentence and five-year domestic coaching ban.
In March Fifpro said: “Because the Czech criminal process and the Czech FA’s administrative proceedings are separate and can run in parallel, the union is challenging the 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.”