Canada removes women's soccer coach in drone-spying scandal

Canada Soccer has announced it has suspended women's head coach Bev Priestman for the rest of the Paris Olympics after a member of her staff used a drone to spy on two New Zealand training sessions. Canada beat New Zealand 2-1 in their opening match at the Summer Games on Thursday.

"Over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, pre-dating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games," said Kevin Blue, chief executive for Canada Soccer.

"In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the decision to suspend women's national soccer team head coach Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and until the completion of our recently announced independent external review," he added.

The announcement came a day after Canadian assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi were sent home from the Paris Olympics over the affair.

Drone flown over closed training session

The series of events started when two members of New Zealand's support team spotted a drone flying over one of their training sessions and notified police.

Police then arrested Lombardi and charged him with maintaining an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area. Lombardi confessed and was handed an eight-month suspended sentence.

New Zealand also registered a complaint with the International Olympic Committee's integrity unit.

Priestman withdraws from New Zealand match

Although Priestman denied any knowledge of the spying, she had previously said she would voluntarily refrain from coaching in the New Zealand match.

"My reaction was, you feel like this program has let the country down," she told reporters after a training session on Wednesday.

Priestman, who had previously worked as a coach for New Zealand Football, also apologized to New Zealand's players.

"This does not represent the values that our team stands for," she said. "I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program."

The Canadian Olympic Committee said in a statement on Friday that it had now removed Priestman from the Olympic team due to her suspension by Canada Soccer.

Football's world governing body FIFA has said it has launched disciplinary proceedings against Canada Soccer, as well as Priestman, Mander and Lombardi.

Canada Soccer said Wednesday it would launch an independent external review about the drone incident and the historical culture of competitive ethics throughout all of its programs.

'We are not cheats'

Canadian players have expressed deep disappointment at the turn of events.

Defender Vanessa Gilles described the affair as a "humiliation" for the gold medalists from the Tokyo Games in 2021.

"As a Canadian, these are not our values," she said. " We are not cheats."

Her view was shared by Canada Soccer CEO Blue, who spoke with reporters via videocall a few hours before the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.

Asked by a reporter whether he had considered withdrawing Canada from the women's tournament over the scandal, Blue said this wouldn't have been fair to the players.

"I have not considered withdrawal of the team, primarily because we feel like we have addressed the situation swiftly and significantly," said Blue, who only took the job a few months ago.

"It would be to the detriment of our players, who have worked so hard and sacrificed quite a bit to be Olympians and themselves have not engaged in unethical behavior."

'Attempted drone usage' at Copa America

As bad as the scandal is for the Canadians, it could well get worse. Blue revealed the "additional information… predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games" that he had referred to in his earlier statement, included "attempted drone usage" by the Canadian men's team at this summer's Copa America.

He said new Canadian men's coach Jesse Marsch had been made aware of this after the fact and had "denounced it as a practice to his staff."

Meanwhile, Canadian sports network TSN has cited two unnamed sources with "first-hand knowledge" as saying the women's staff also filmed other opponents' closed-door training sessions, including during the Olympic tournament in 2021.

However, it appears that Sweden, who Canada beat in a penalty shootout in the final to win gold in Tokyo, does not plan to take any further action.

"There is no protest planned, and otherwise we are taking a pass on the opportunity to make any statement on the matter," Swedish FA spokesperson Fredrik Madenstam told Reuters.

The Canadian players can only try to focus on the football, as assistant coach Andy Spence takes charge of the team for the rest of the tournament, starting with their match against hosts France in Saint-Etienne on Sunday. 

Edited by: Jonathan Harding