The Canada women's soccer team awoke on Friday morning to the news that their head coach, Bev Priestman, had been sent home following the drone spying scandal that has overshadowed the team's gold medal defense at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
After Priestman removed herself from the sidelines for the team's 2-1 win over New Zealand on Thursday, Canada Soccer announced Priestman was being suspended pending independent review and will not coach the team for the remainder of the tournament. Assistant Andy Spence will take over on an interim basis.
News of Priestman's exit from Paris happened overnight while the players were asleep, according to CBC's Devin Heroux.
Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue addressed the media on Friday and said that the footage seized by authorities was not seen by the players ahead of their opening match and that no players were involved in "unethical behavior."
Blue added that if FIFA hands down any further punishment he hopes it does not come in the form of a points deduction due to how Canada Soccer has quickly addressed the matter.
FIFA's investigation into the team was opened on Wednesday.
Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer David Shoemaker said on Friday that Priestman was "highly likely" to have been aware of the drone usage on New Zealand's training sessions. Priestman has denied the allegation.
Though a Canada Soccer staffer was caught flying a drone over New Zealand training earlier this week, which is what sparked the scandal in the first place, the issue has apparently been going on for quite some time. According to TSN, both the men's and women's national teams have "relied on drones and spying for years." They even apparently used them to film closed-door training sessions of opponents during the women's team's gold medal run in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, and the following summer as they were attempting to qualify for the Women's World Cup.
“The concrete information I received yesterday made me consider the possibility at least this matter is much more extensive," Blue said, referring to details he learned this week about how widespread the issue has been within Canada Soccer.
That new information included "attempted drone usage" by a member of the men's coaching staff during Copa América. Blue said Canada men's head coach Jesse Marsch learned about it "after the fact" and "has denounced it as a practice to his staff."
Canada plays its second group game on Sunday in Saint-Étienne against France. The idea of withdrawing the team from the Olympics in the wake of the scandal is not something Blue said that he has contemplated. He believes that Canada Soccer has addressed the situation swiftly and appropriately.
"It would be to the detriment of our players, who have worked so hard and sacrificed quite a bit to be Olympians and themselves have not engaged in unethical behavior," Blue said. "I will not consider us withdrawing on the basis of the fact we support our players as Olympians and their right to be here and their right to compete."
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