Canada Soccer admitted using drones to spy on opponents is not an unprecedented practice after the women's team head coach was sent home in disgrace for doing exactly that. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) suspended women’s soccer head coach Bev Priestman after the team was exposed for spying on their Kiwi opponents’ training ahead of their game in France on Thursday — which Canada won 2 to 1. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi on Wednesday were removed from the team after the incident was reported to police.Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue just hours ahead of the Games opening ceremonies acknowledged drone spying is not exclusive to the Olympic tournament, nor to the women’s team. The Canadian men’s team had employed the same tactics at Copa America in South America, said Blue in a video conference on Friday morning, according to the Globe and Mail. “As it relates to the current situation on the men’s team, I am aware of an instance of attempted drone usage,” Blue said, without elaborating. He did say the team’s new head coach, Jesse Marsch, “was aware of it after the fact, at a minimum.”Blue also said despite the women’s team spying scandal, he will not consider withdrawing the team from the Olympic competition. It would be “to the detriment of the players.” Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair released a statement saying in her 23 years in the program, they had no discussion about drones and were never shown drone footage..Meanwhile, sources “with first-hand knowledge of the activity” told TSN that coaching staff and contractors for both Canada’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams have for years been engaged in efforts to video record their opponents’ practices — including before the women’s gold medal win in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Other spying allegations involve at least one training session ahead of the women’s bid to qualify for the World Cup against Panama in July 2022 and a men’s Team Canada coach covertly filming two of private Japan team practices at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. A contractor for the Canadian team was also caught filming a closed-door Panama team practice. The contractor was caught and the Panama team complained to Canada Soccer and the tournament’s regulatory body, CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football). Men’s national team staff and contractors allegedly recorded via drone a US training session in Florida in 2019, one of the courses told TSN, and in 2021 the Honduras team caught the men’s team spying on them during a private practice in Toronto. At the time, then-Canada coach John Herdman minimalized the accusations. “I’d imagine there’s probably a lot of people in Canada that fly drones, I’m sure,” he said. “And when a big team like Honduras turn up I’m sure people are probably interested in what they’re doing when they come into our country. So I know for sure we won’t be heading into people’s countries too early because with drones these days, people can obviously capture footage. You’ve got to be really careful. So yeah, you got to be careful in CONCACAF. It’s a tricky place.”When asked how such tactics had become so common in Canadian national soccer, the source told the publication coaches and contractors often face subtle coercion to do so. “In a couple of scenarios, people have been pushed and have been told, ‘You have to give 110% and this is part of the job so if you don’t feel comfortable with doing this, you do not have a place on the team’,” the source said. “It’s not something that’s talked about and it’s not something there are a lot of text messages about because of how sensitive this is. Some of the people who have had to do the filming or review the filming have said to a few staff members how uncomfortable it was for them.”COC CEO David Shoemaker in removing Priestman as Olympic head coach said she was “highly likely to have been aware” of the spying tactics. An external review will be conducted before she will be allowed to resume her position. “One of the key pieces of information was the conclusion from Canada Soccer that she needed to be suspended based on their accumulation of facts,” said Shoemaker during a press conference Friday. “I’ve seen some of them, some of the information they have, and we got some additional information ourselves. That made me conclude that she was highly likely to have been aware of the incidents in St-Etienne.”Shoemaker was asked if these new revelations of misconduct would affect Canada’s gold medal win in the Tokyo 2021 Games. “There now appears to be information that could tarnish that Olympic performance in Tokyo,” said Shoemaker.“Makes me sick to my stomach to think that there could be something that calls into question what I’m sure so many of you have heard me say over the course of the last three years, one of my favourite Olympic moments in history, that women’s team winning that gold medal against all odds.”Blue prior to his comments on the video call had acknowledged the drone spying scandal and said due to the team’s cheating, Canada Soccer had made the decision to suspend her until the case was thoroughly reviewed. “Over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” he said at the time. “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.” Assistant coach Andy Spence replaced Preistman as head coach for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
