We didn’t even make it to the opening ceremonies before a spying scandal rocked the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A over a New Zealand practice earlier this week in France ahead of their group stage game on Thursday. The staffer in question was detained and eventually sent home from the games after French police searched his hotel room and recovered the drone footage.
That, of course, has prompted multiple investigations.
While there are still plenty of questions to be figured out, here’s everything we know so far about the Canadian soccer spying scandal in Paris.
July 20: New Zealand trains at Michon Stadium in Saint-Etienne
New Zealand opened practices on Saturday in France ahead of the Olympics.
The local prosecutor’s office said that a supervisor of the Olympic training site informed police that a drone was hovering over Auguste Dury Stadium on Monday. The team manager of New Zealand had informed the supervisor of the drone and immediately stopped the training session.
Police later arrested 43-year-old Joseph Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst” with the Canadian women’s soccer team, who was operating the drone and filmed the closed-door training session. Lombard’s hotel room was searched and the drone was seized. He admitted that the videos of two closed training sessions (including one on July 20) “had enabled him to learn the tactics of the opposing team.”
Lombardi was charged with flying an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area, and accepted an eight-month suspended sentence. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander was interviewed and not charged.
The COC issued a statement saying that they were made aware that a non-accredited member of the Canada Soccer support team was detained by French authorities after New Zealand lodged their complaint.
The complaint said that a Canada Soccer staff member allegedly used a drone to record the New Zealand women’s team’s training session on July 22.
The COC offered its “heartfelt apologies” to the New Zealand players and said they would review next steps with the IOC, Paris 2024, Canada Soccer, and FIFA.
July 24: Canada head coach Bev Priestman removes herself from opening match
Following the COC review of the drone incident, they discovered a second incident involving a drone and the July 19th New Zealand training session.
Upon learning these new details, two staff members — Lombardi and Mander — were removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and sent home immediately.
Canada women’s head coach Bev Priestman told the COC she would step aside for the team’s opening Olympic match against New Zealand on July 25.
“On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada. This does not represent the values that our team stands for,” Priestman said in a statement. “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.”
Canada Soccer staff was also ordered to undergo mandatory ethics training.
July 25: Canada-New Zealand match
With Priestman back at the team’s hotel and Andy Spence in charge, Canada picked up a 2-1 win over New Zealand on Thursday in their first group stage game of the Olympics.
Cloé Lacasse scored first for the Canadians in extra time just before halftime, which evened the match up after Mackenzie Barry scored in the opening minutes for New Zealand. Canada’s Evelyne Viens then scored in the 79th minute to put Canada up by a goal and eventually give them the win.
The win gave Canada three points in Group A, which has them tied with France in the lead early. France beat Colombia in their first group stage game 3-2 on Thursday.
Canada and France will square off next on Sunday.
July 25: Canada suspends, sends home coach Bev Priestman
Shortly after their win over New Zealand, Canada Soccer announced that it has suspended Preistman for the remainder of the games. Priestman was then sent home from the Olympics, and Spence was named the team’s interim coach.
The announcement came as a report from TSN alleged that the spying was something that has been going on for years within both the men’s and women’s national teams. The women’s team even allegedly used drones to spy on opponents both during the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where they won the gold medal — and the following year as they were trying to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.
Source Agencies
