After bombshell news that staff of Canada’s women’s national soccer team used drones to spy on New Zealand’s national team, whistleblowers claim that this is a practice that has been going on for years, and that the head coach was aware.
Canada Soccer has suspended the women’s soccer team’s head coach, Bev Priestman, and the Canadian Olympic Committee has removed her from the Olympic team in connection with the scandal.
Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue announced the suspension and launched an external investigation of the allegations.
“Over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” said Blue.
“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.”
Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker said that Priestman was likely aware that drones were being used to spy on opposing teams in France.
“I’ve seen some of them, some of the information they have, and we’ve gathered some additional information ourselves that made me conclude that she was highly likely to have been aware of the incident here in Saint-Etienne,” said Shoemaker.
Earlier in the week, Priestman offered to sit out of Canada’s game against New Zealand on Wednesday in the “spirit of accountability.”
Anonymous sources told TSN that Canada’s men’s and women’s teams have relied on drones to spy on their opponent’s training sessions for years, going back to the 2021 Tokyo Olympic games, where the women’s team won the gold medal.
The sources said that Team Canada has been using drones as far back as a Nov. 15, 2019 game against the U.S.A. men’s national team, where the Americans won 4 to 1.
The Honduras men’s national team had to stop a 2021 training session in Toronto before a World Cup qualifying match after a drone was spotted overhead.
Former head coach of the men’s national team John Herdman acknowledged the incident, claiming that an overzealous fan may have been responsible for the incident.
“I’d imagine there’s probably a lot of people in Canada that fly drones, I’m sure,” said Herdman.
“And when a big team like Honduras turns up I’m sure people are probably interested in what they’re doing when they come into our country. So I know for sure we won’t be heading into people’s countries too early because with drones these days, people can obviously capture footage. You’ve got to be really careful.”
Team Canada staff are alleged to have spied on a Japanese women’s national team training session in the 2021 Olympics before a game in which Canada and Japan tied 1-1.
A contractor for Canada Soccer was caught attempting to film Panama’s women’s national team in July 2022 in the World Cup qualifiers, resulting in a complaint to Canada Soccer and Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, one of FIFA’s governing bodies.
True North reached out to Team Canada for comment, but received no response.