A growing scandal at the Paris Olympics over Canada Soccer’s use of drones to make unauthorized recordings of opponents’ practices took a major turn Thursday when the country’s Olympic committee removed women’s national team coach Bev Priestman. Canada Soccer’s CEO expressed concerns Friday that the incident might be reflective of a systemic problem affecting Canada’s men’s and women’s programs.
Having arrived in France with the goal of winning a second straight gold medal as Canada’s coach, Priestman instead was suspended and could face further discipline. In a news release, the Canadian Olympic Committee said she would be replaced by assistant coach Andy Spence.
“Over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue said in a statement. “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.”
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The news release was issued shortly after the publication of a TSN story alleging that staffers and contractors for both the Canadian women’s and men’s national teams attempted to film training sessions of upcoming opponents for several years.
In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Blue said Canada’s players were not involved in any unethical behavior and the team has no plans of dropping out of the Olympics. Blue added that he has received new information that has forced him to consider that the women’s team’s recent use of drones were not isolated incidents. Blue acknowledged that he was “aware of an instance of attempted drone usage during Copa America” earlier this month by Canada’s men’s national team, which lost in the semifinals to Argentina.
“The more I learn about this specific matter, the more concerned I get about a potential long-term, deeply embedded systemic culture of this type of thing occurring, which is obviously completely unacceptable,” Blue said, according to the Athletic.
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Earlier this week, Priestman sidelined herself for the women’s Olympic opener Thursday and two members of her staff were sent home after Canadian officials learned that drones were flown over two recent practices staged by New Zealand, Canada’s upcoming opponent. At the time, Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker said Priestman told officials “unequivocally” that she did not know recordings had been taken of the Football Ferns’ training sessions in Saint-Étienne, France, where Canada won Thursday’s game, 2-1. But at a news conference on Friday, Shoemaker said new information led him to believe Priestman “was highly likely to have been aware of the incidents here.”
The story has raised questions about whether Canada’s national soccer programs have long encouraged such subterfuge, including an allegation that Canada’s men’s squad used a drone to record a U.S. team practice ahead of a 2019 match in Orlando. That team was coached by John Herdman from 2018 until August 2023, when he departed to become coach of MLS’s Toronto FC. Herdman was eventually replaced this spring on a permanent basis by Jesse Marsch, who earned praise for guiding the team to the semifinals of the recently concluded Copa America.
Canada's men's and women's soccer teams have relied on drones and spying for years, sources say
Coaching staff and contractors working with Canada’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams have been engaged for years in efforts to film the closed-door training sessions of their… pic.twitter.com/GuwijxTMNm
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) July 25, 2024Before leading the men’s team, Herdman coached the Canadian women from 2011 to 2018, during which Priestman spent some time as an assistant and in other roles. She also overlapped with Herdman in the New Zealand national soccer program when he coached that country’s women’s’ team from 2006 to 2011. Both Priestman, 38, and the 49-year-old Herdman hail from the small Northern England town of Consett, where they first met when she was a youth soccer player.
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A spokesperson for Toronto FC did not immediately respond to a request Thursday evening for comment on Herdman. A spokesman for U.S. Soccer said that organization had no comment on the reports regarding Priestman and Canada Soccer’s use of drones.
The two staffers sent home this week by the Canadian Olympic Committee were Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach, and Joseph Lombardi, 43, who was described by the organization as “an unaccredited analyst” who reported to Mander.
According to a biography on Canada Soccer’s website, the 43-year-old Lombardi appears to have held a variety of more formal roles within the organization, including as a team staffer at last year’s Women’s World Cup and at six FIFA youth tournaments dating back to 2012. As noted Thursday by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Lombardi also was listed as a member of Priestman’s staff in a COC news release earlier this month detailing the women’s Olympic team.
It turns out Canada Soccer’s “unaccredited analyst” at the centre of the Olympic drone fiasco is the director of a national youth program with the organization, and previously served under John Herdman, then the men’s team’s head coach https://t.co/1FBB98F79T
— Thomas Daigle (@thomasdaigle) July 25, 2024Lombardi, who served as analyst under Herdman from 2018 to 2019, matches the description of a Canadian national who was arrested by police in Saint-Étienne on Monday after flying a drone over the stadium in which the New Zealand women’s team was practicing. Authorities there said in a statement that the person had recorded footage of the training session that day and of a Football Ferns practice the preceding Friday. The man was said to have told police that he was an “independent sports analyst” working for Canada Soccer, and that his recordings “enabled him to learn the tactics of the opposing team.”
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The New Zealand Olympic Committee said Tuesday it was “deeply shocked and disappointed by this incident.” Canada’s committee then followed with an apology in which it echoed that language and said it “stands for fair-play.”
FIFA said Wednesday that its disciplinary committee has “opened proceedings” against Priestman, Lombardi, Mander and Canada Soccer.
In a statement shared by the COC on Wednesday, after Priestman stepped aside for the New Zealand game but before she was suspended and removed from the Olympic campaign, she said the episode “does not represent the values that our team stands for.”
“I am ultimately responsible,” Priestman added, “for conduct in our program.”
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