After an audacious and richly executed opening ceremony in the French capital, the much awaited 33rd Summer Olympic Games were declared underway on Friday. However, the Paris Olympics had already seen its first big ‘scandal’ even before the unique hot air balloon cauldron was lit.
The spygate scandal involving the Canada women’s football team has led to the suspension of the head coach Bev Priestman, opening separate investigations from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA. What has put further pressure on Canadian FA are signs of a ‘systematic’ practice.
What happened?
On July 22, the New Zealand women’s team manager had informed a supervisor of a drone hovering over their Olympic training site in Saint Etienne. Following this, the team’s training session was immediately stopped. Later that day, the local police arrested Joseph Lombardi, an unaccredited analyst with the Canadian team – who were scheduled to play New Zealand on July 25 – was traced back as the drone’s operator.
Lombardi’s hotel room was searched and his drone seized, and he admitted to the police that the videos of two closed doors training sessions (including one from July 20) “had enabled him to learn the tactics of the opposing team.”
Canada’s response
The Canada Olympic Committee (COC) issued a ‘heartfelt apology’ to the New Zealand team in a statement, furthermore adding that they would work with IOC, FIFA, and Canada Soccer to review the next steps. Two staff members — Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander — were removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and sent home.
Ahead of her team’s opening match at the Summer Olympics against New Zealand, Canada head coach Bev Priestman told the COC that she had opted to sit out the game.
“I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program. Accordingly, to emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld,” Priestman said in her statement.
The match
As it happened, Canada went on to best New Zealand 2-1 in their first game, and hold an advantage in the four-team group to with three points alongside France. Off the 12 teams slotted in three groups, the top two from each group shall advance to the quarterfinals as well as the two best third placed teams.
Coach suspended, reports of systematic practice
Shortly after their game against New Zealand, Canada Soccer announced the suspension of head coach Priestman and that she would fly back home from the Games.
The statement came in the aftermath of TSN publishing a damning report that claimed evidence against Canada men’s and women’s team of filming opposition training sessions for years, including at their gold-medal winning campaign at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
A day later, Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue held a press conference, in which he shared that he had learned of an “attempted drone usage” by a member of the men’s coaching staff during the recently concluded Copa América. Blue said Canada men’s head coach Jesse Marsch learned about it “after the fact” and “has denounced it as a practice to his staff.”
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“They gave me reasons to think further about the potential that this behavior was systemic,” Blue said.
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