Bev Priestman, the English manager in charge of Canada women’s football team, has been axed from Paris 2024 after new espionage claims surfaced in the drone spying scandal.
Canada’s camp was thrown into disarray this week after two team members were sent home for allegedly using a drone to spy on a New Zealand training camp. British coach Priestman denied any involvement, but did not attend Thursday’s 2-1 victory over New Zealand as Fifa and the International Olympic Committee investigate.
Kevin Blue, Canada Soccer’s chief executive and general secretary, said in the release that “additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games”.
He added Priestman was suspended from her duties until the end of the tournament and the completion of the organisation’s independent external review.
Canada’s Olympic Committee said in a statement released early on Friday that assistant coach Andy Spence would lead the defending gold medalists for the remainder of the tournament.
The COC said on Wednesday that assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi were “sent home immediately,” and that it had accepted Priestman’s decision to remove herself from coaching the opening match.
Priestman spoke on Wednesday after training and said: “My reaction was you feel like this program has let the country down. That’s why I took the proactive step to do what I felt was the right thing. Irrespective of the details, I’m ultimately accountable.”
Priestman had agreed to a contract in late January to coach Canada through to the 2027 Women’s World Cup. She was hired in November 2020 to succeed Kenneth Heiner-Møller and had been working on a rolling contract. She led Canada to a gold medal at the 2021 Olympics, but was eliminated in the group stage of last year’s World Cup. She has coached the team to 28 wins, nine losses and 10 draws.
Priestman spent five years with the Canadian Soccer Association in a variety of coaching roles before returning in June 2018 to her native England, where she served as coach of the women’s under-18 team and assistant coach with the senior women’s team. Before that she spent four-and-a-half years as head of football development in New Zealand before leaving in June 2013.
Coach ‘highly likely’ to have known about spying
Spence takes immediate charge for the remainder of the Games, with the defending Olympic champion’s next game against France on Sunday.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive David Shoemaker said: “One of the key pieces of information was the conclusion from Canada Soccer that [Priestman] needed to be suspended based on their accumulation of facts.
“I’ve seen some of the information they have, and we gathered some additional information ourselves that made me conclude that she was highly likely to have been aware of the incidents here.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Priestman confirmed she took responsibility for the actions of her colleagues after a scouting report filed by Lombardi was sent to Mander.
County Durham-born Priestman started her professional coaching career with Canada women’s Under-17s in 2013 before progressing through to the Under-20 side. Priestman, who did not play football professionally, returned to England to coach the England Under-17 women’s side. In 2018, Phil Neville, then the England women’s head coach, brought in the 38-year-old as his assistant coach.
Following two years with England, Priestman returned to Canada to take over as manager where she led them to Olympic gold at Tokyo in 2021, defeating Sweden on penalties in the final.
Source Agencies
