Canada’s drone gateway: Players unaware of spying despite ‘systemic ethical lapses,’ official statement says

Canadian soccer bosses on Friday asked FIFA not to dock points from the women’s Olympic soccer team after a drone-tapping scandal led to coach Bev Priestman’s dramatic exclusion from the Paris Games.

Canada Soccer chief executive Kevin Blue has said Canadian players have not seen any drone footage used to spy on training in New Zealand and that they should not be penalised by international football body FIFA.

Reigning Olympic champions Canada beat New Zealand 2-1 in their opening match of the women’s tournament on Thursday despite a roster shakeup.

Canada Soccer announced Friday morning that England coach Priestman had been suspended with immediate effect after an initial investigation into the scandal revealed that his coach was wiretapped using drones ahead of the Paris Olympics.

Canadian Olympic Committee president David Shoemaker said Friday that Canada’s victory at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics may also have been tainted by spy tactics.

Priestman’s departure came a day after assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joey Lombardi were also sent home for their roles in the scandal.

Blue told reporters that there were “frankly unacceptable lapses in professional ethics” within the Canadian coaching staff.

However, he asked FIFA not to impose a points deduction on Canada, which could potentially end its Olympic title defense.

“The players themselves were not involved in any unethical conduct,” Blue said. “And we sincerely ask FIFA to take that into account when considering further sanctions. Specifically, we do not believe that deducting points from this tournament would be fair to our players.”

Blue said the initial investigation revealed indications of “systemic ethical lapses” but could not explain how long Canada’s coaches had been using drones to spy on opponents’ practices.

“It makes me sick.” “I have received new information from internal sources that has given me cause to further consider the possibility that this type of behavior is systemic,” Blue said. “The specific information I received yesterday has caused me to consider the possibility that this is much more pervasive.”

Asked if the tactic was used at last year’s Women’s World Cup, where Canada failed to advance from their group, Blue said he couldn’t give a definitive answer at this stage.
“It’s all happening in real time,” he said.

But Canadian Olympic chief Shoemaker said there “does seem to be information out there” suggesting illegal drone eavesdropping may have been used in Canada’s surprising gold medal win in Tokyo three years ago.

“It makes me sick,” Shoemaker said. “It makes me sick to think that there could be something that undermines one of my favorite Olympic moments in history — that the women’s team won the gold medal against all odds under these Covid restrictions.”

Canada Soccer CEO Blue has been emphatic in stating that none of the Canadian players had access to the footage obtained in France.

“I can now state that the band has not seen any of that footage,” he said.
After their victory over New Zealand, Canada’s players claimed they were innocent.

“There was a lot of emotion, frustration and humiliation because as an athlete, it didn’t reflect our values and what we want to represent as athletes at the Olympic Games,” defender Vanessa Gilles said.

“The Games represent fair play. As Canadians, these are not our values or the values of our country. We are not cheaters. It was very difficult, but we knew how to stand together.”

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