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2021 Women’s Olympic Soccer Gold Medal Winners Used Drones to Spy on Opponents for Years: Report
Canadian Women's Soccer team accused of using drones to spy on the opponents for years; coach gets suspended. Read on to know more.
Canadian Soccer national men's and women's teams are reported to be spying on the opponent teams to sneak through the closed-door training sessions and this has been going on for years. Additionally, it has also been said that this incident also happened during the women’s gold-medal-winning Olympic tournament in Tokyo.
Meanwhile, all these allegations resulted in the women's soccer team coming under heavy scrutiny as the Paris Olympics 2024 kicked off. The unauthorized use of drones to record the training of other teams has also resulted in sending a Canadian Olympic soccer coach home.
2021 Women’s Soccer Olympic gold medal winners used drones to spy on opponents for years: Report
TSN was reported by two sources with first-hand knowledge of the activity that the coaching staff and contractors who have been working for the men's and women's Canadian national soccer teams have been documenting and spying on the opponent teams so that they can be aware of their closed-door training sessions.
In addition, it has also been said by the aforementioned source that the spying continued even ahead of the women's national team fixture against Panama in July 2022. This was the time when the Canadian squad was attempting to qualify for the Women’s World Cup in Australia.
According to The Canadian Olympic Committee, Jasmine Mander and Joseph Lombardi departed from the team and returned to Canada after Lombardi, the analyst was caught sneaking through not one, but two of New Zealand's close training sessions with the help of a drone.
The Canadian team was able to defeat New Zealand with a score of 2-1 in the opener in Paris. As per a report by The Globe and Mail, the French police caught Lombardi retrieving a drone that was flying above the opponent team's practice session.
Canada's Olympic soccer coach sent home following the incident
The country's Olympic committee has fired Bev Priestman, the coach for the women’s national team. Brev was there to win another consecutive gold medal at the Olympics, however, was asked to depart from the team following the incident.
The former Canadian coach might also face further discipline. The replacement has already been decided and as per the Canadian Olympic Committee, in a news release, they reported she will be replaced by Andy Spence, the assistant coach.
Meanwhile, Priestman will remain suspended for the remainder of the Olympics as we wait for an independent external review to be completed, said the Canadian Olympic Committee.
The 38-year-old sealed a deal with the team in January this year and was contracted until the 2027 Women’s World Cup. She was signed by the team in November of 2020 in place of Kenneth Heiner-Moller.
The women's Canadian team is well known for bagging a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. However, they couldn't perform the same way in last year's World Cup. They are the two-time CONCACAF Women's Championship winners.
In addition to that, the team has also won two bronze medals in the Olympics after qualifying for the major for the first time back in 2008.
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