Sports
Canada sends two Olympic officials home for spying on football training in New Zealand with drones
NICE, France – The Olympic women’s soccer tournament is starting with an unexpected tragedy: a complaint from the New Zealand Olympic Committee about attempted espionage during a training session just before the Paris Games.
A drone was flown over a Ferns training session in Saint-Étienne, France, on Monday, the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) said in a statement. Ferns employees reported the drone to the police, who arrested the operator, an employee of the Canadian team.
On Wednesday, the Canadian Olympic Committee said a separate drone incident during training in New Zealand on July 19 had come to light. As a result, Canadian head coach Bev Priestman said she would withdraw from overseeing Thursday’s match against New Zealand. The COC added that Joseph Lombardi, a “non-accredited analyst,” and Jasmine Mander, a coach who supervises Lombardi, had been removed from the team and sent home. The committee said Canada Soccer staff would also undergo “mandatory ethics training.”
The COC’s initial statement Wednesday morning confirmed that Lombardi used a drone “to capture the New Zealand women’s soccer team during training.” The COC apologized to the New Zealand players, the federation and the International Olympic Committee, saying it was “shocked and disappointed”.
FIFA confirmed later Wednesday that its disciplinary committee had opened proceedings against Canada Soccer, Priestman, Mander and Lombardi. The incident represented a potential breach of FIFA and Olympic football fair play rules.
Priestman will not be on the sidelines during Canada’s game against New Zealand (Logan Riely/Getty Images)
“On behalf of our entire team, I would first and foremost like to apologize to the players and staff of New Zealand Football and to the players of Team Canada,” Priestman said later. “This does not represent the values our team stands for.
“I am ultimately responsible for the behavior in our program. Therefore, to emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the game on Thursday. In the spirit of responsibility, I do this with the best interests of both teams in mind and to ensure that everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld.”
A FIFA statement read: “The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has initiated proceedings against Canada Soccer, Ms. Beverly Priestman, Mr. Joseph Lombardi and Ms. Jasmine Mander for the possible violation of Article 13 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and Article 6.1 of the Regulations for Olympic football tournaments. Games of the XXXIII Olympiad Paris 2024 – final competition, following incidents involving an unaccredited member of the Canadian delegation to the Olympic women’s football tournament, who is believed to have used a drone to record the New Zealand women’s football team.
“The matter will be submitted to the disciplinary committee in the coming days.”
New Zealand Football CEO Andrew Pragnell issued a statement in New Zealand on Thursday morning calling for “urgent action” to “address this breach of integrity.”
“To now learn that the Canadian team has filmed covert footage of our team training on at least two occasions is incredibly concerning and if not addressed urgently could have wider implications for the integrity of the tournament,” Pragnell’s statement said.
“We note that there have been some admissions by the Canadian National Olympic Committee, and that they have taken their own sanctions against the Canadian team, but given the seriousness of the situation and the potential implications for the sporting integrity of the entire tournament. we have referred the matter to FIFA’s disciplinary committee for urgent action,” the statement continued.
Drones were a story during the Paris Games, with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal say Tuesday that an average of six drones are intercepted per day at Olympic locations, mainly from tourists trying to capture images of the spectacle.
The women’s football tournament starts on Thursday. Canada and New Zealand kick off Group A action at 5pm local/11am ET in Saint-Étienne, in a group with France and Colombia. According to FIFA, Canada is currently ranked eighth in the world, while New Zealand is ranked 28th.
Required reading
(Photo: Jean-Pierre Clatot / AFP via Getty)
