Paris — So there you have it: the dynamics that propelled Canadian soccer from impersonator to global powerhouse. It wasn't just grit, camaraderie and good coaching that led Canada to its first men's World Cup appearance this century and its women's team to three consecutive Olympic medals.
Drones were also involved.
Last week, it was discovered that the women's national team had spied on New Zealand ahead of the opening Olympic match between the two countries. The damage to Canadian soccer could be devastating two years before the World Cup returns to North America. The Canadian Soccer Federation and FIFA have both launched investigations, with the federation's CEO, Kevin Blue, saying he was concerned that cheating may be a “long-standing, deeply ingrained and systemic” part of the national team's culture.
2024 Paris Summer Olympics
The furore came to a head last week when Canadian women's team analyst Joseph Lombardi was stopped by French police while retrieving a drone that had been flying over a New Zealand team practice. The Canadian Olympic Committee moved quickly to contain the damage in an attempt to prevent the scandal from spreading.
It was a plan that failed miserably.
First, the league expelled Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander, who was aware of Lombardi's actions, and supported coach Bev Priestman's decision to sit out the New Zealand game as a sign of remorse.But as investigators and journalists, particularly those at the Toronto Globe and Mail and TSN, began to unravel the mystery, the case began to unravel more and more.
Lombardi was also found to have flown a drone over New Zealand's second practice, leading to Priestman's expulsion, though Priestman was initially vague about the accusations, avoiding direct questions from reporters and telling the Canadian Olympic Committee that he didn't know what his staff were doing.
Filming opponents' practices, especially behind closed doors, is invaluable to coaches, as they can see the formation, the likely starting XI and who will take penalties and set pieces.So FIFA, which runs the men's and women's tournaments for the Summer Olympics, stepped in, suspending Priestman for a year, fined the team about $225,000 and deducted six points from Canada's total in the group stage standings, seriously hurting Canada's chances of successfully defending the gold medal it won in Tokyo three years ago.
At just 38 years old, this will be Priestman's final game coaching for Canada.
But that was just punishment: it turns out drone flights in France were not just isolated incidents, but rather common practice.
Canadian sports network TSN reports that assistant coaches and contract employees for Canada's men's and women's teams have been secretly filming opponents' closed-door training sessions for years, including at the Tokyo Olympics and in the 2022 men's World Cup qualifiers.
Current Toronto FC manager John Herdman was the men's manager when Canada won the CONCACAF qualifiers to qualify for their first World Cup in 36 years. Herdman previously coached the women's team, leading them from bottom of their group in the 2011 World Cup to the quarterfinals four years later and winning bronze medals in London and Rio de Janeiro, Canada's first Olympic medals in women's soccer.
An uneasy Hardman called news of the espionage a “surprise and shock” and, like Priestman, after repeatedly dodging direct questions, said: “My experience as Olympic and World Cup managers gives me confidence that we have not been involved in any such activity.”
That may be true, but the answer seemed oddly accurate. Apparently there's a good reason for it: Canada, under Herdman's direction, used a drone to record a U.S. training session before a match in Florida in 2019, and two years later, Honduras canceled a training session in Toronto ahead of a World Cup qualifier against Herdman's team after someone spotted a drone flying overhead, according to TSN.
Priestman was a protégé of Hardman's, playing and studying under him in England at the age of 12, before following Hardman to Canada where he served as an assistant coach for the women's team.
American Jesse Marsh, who took over as head coach of Canada's men's team in May, said the federation's CEO, Blue, had told him he had criticized the use of drones to monitor competition.
Meanwhile, players fought to protect their reputations.
“I want to be clear that in my 23 years of playing for the national team, drone footage has never been shown or discussed at any team or individual meeting I have attended,” three-time Olympic medalist and international football's all-time leading goalscorer Christine Sinclair wrote on Instagram. Sinclair, now retired from the national team, played for both Herdman and Priestman.
The Blues seem to back that up, telling reporters that players in France haven't seen any of the video shot by Lombardi, but sources told TSN that the practice of filming opponents' training sessions is an open secret among staff and they justify it in the mistaken belief that other teams are doing it as well.
In fact, the practice was so common and accepted in Canada that when contractors refused to participate, they were replaced, TSN reported.
The reports will make it harder to pin the blame solely on the two coaches, as the cheating appears to have been systematic, as Blue suggested. Further penalties and revelations are expected to be announced as FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association investigations continue, although the scope and severity of any penalties may be limited because Canada has already invested heavily in preparing to host 13 World Cup matches in 2026.
In the meantime, Canada is expected to keep its drones on the ground.
