FIFA deducts 6 points from Canadian Women’s Soccer Federation over drone spying
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FIFA suspended Canada women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman for one year, deducted six points from her Olympic group-stage points total and imposed a fine on Saturday after Canada flew a drone over New Zealand’s training sessions ahead of the Games.
The punishment immediately and severely damaged Canada’s chances of a second consecutive gold medal, which won the 2021 Olympic tournament in Tokyo. That victory was immediately called into question when the drone scandal came to light.
Canada Soccer and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) are exploring options to appeal FIFA’s decision regarding the six-point deduction, which they consider “excessively punitive” to the players, they said in a statement Saturday.
“We deeply sympathize with the athletes of the Canadian women’s national soccer team at the Olympic Games, who, to our knowledge, played no role in this matter,” said COC CEO David Shoemaker.
The operator of the drone in the incident that sparked a wide-ranging investigation into Canada Soccer, team analyst Joseph Lombardi, was suspended for a year, as was assistant coach Jasmine Mander, the chairman of FIFA’s appeals committee made the ruling.
FIFA found violations of Article 13 of its Code of Conduct and Article 6.1 of the Olympic Football Tournament Rules, both related to fair play. FIFA also noted that the decision was made — very quickly — because of the impact on the outcome of the ongoing Olympic tournament. Canada, in Group A, won its opening match against New Zealand 2-1 and will play host France on Sunday.
FIFA’s fine is 200,000 Swiss francs, equivalent to 312,700 Canadian dollars (or about 225,000 U.S. dollars), another setback for a federation that has been struggling financially for the past year.
While the incident took place during the Olympic Games, and the International Olympic Committee could also impose its own sanctions, FIFA also has jurisdiction as the international umbrella organization, as it has “control and direction” over the Olympic tournaments for both men and women.
New Zealand had immediately requested that FIFA not award Canada any points for its group-stage win over the Ferns in the run-up to Saturday’s tiebreaker. New Zealand praised the “swift action” taken against Canada but said it still believed Canada had “gained an unfair sporting advantage by filming our key tactical sessions.”
“It is disappointing that New Zealand has been put in such a position by actions of this nature, which impact the entire tournament, but our focus is now firmly on our remaining matches against Colombia and France,” New Zealand Football said in a statement on Saturday.
Canada Soccer could seek a “reasoned decision,” which would include a more detailed explanation of FIFA’s ruling, which would be made public on FIFA’s legal homepage. The decision could also be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Canada could still advance from Group A (which includes France, Colombia and New Zealand) if it wins all three of its games and earns three points through the end of the group stage, depending on other results. With the limited size of the 12-team Olympic tournament, eight must advance — meaning the top two third-place teams will advance to the quarterfinals. There’s even a slim chance Canada could advance with a single point, though it would have to rely on other poor performances and goal differences to get through.
Canada Soccer pulled Priestman from the Olympics on Friday after “additional information” came to light about previous drone use against opponents before the Paris Games. The federation has vowed to conduct its own investigation into the entire program.
Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue said that based on what he had learned so far, he was concerned there was “a potential long-term, deep-rooted systemic culture” of policing other teams.
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Canada Soccer had hoped to avoid direct repercussions for the team in France. Blue repeatedly stressed that players were not aware of the drone use and should not be punished.
“We believe in particular that a deduction of points in this tournament would not be fair to our players, particularly in light of the significant and immediate steps we have taken to address the situation,” he said Friday. Blue used this same argument again in his statement on Saturday: “Canada Soccer has taken swift action to suspend the staff involved and is also continuing a broad independent investigation that may result in further disciplinary action.”
The collective decision to appeal FIFA’s ruling, specifically on the grounds of Canada’s six-point deduction for the group stage, is not surprising, but may not be successful. FIFA’s disciplinary committee was largely concerned only with what happened at the Olympics last week. While players did not participate in the use of drones or other abuses, they may have benefited from their use—albeit unknowingly.
After New Zealand team staff reported a drone flying over their training session in Saint-Étienne on July 22, they alerted local police. Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst” for the Canadian women’s team, was arrested, and police recovered footage from an earlier New Zealand training session on July 19.
Canada Soccer attempted to avoid further punishment by sending Lombardi and Mander (the assistant coach he reported to) back home. Priestman also announced she would not coach in Canada’s opening match against New Zealand.
But the situation evolved quickly.
Blue said he was aware of several incidents within the program based on anecdotal evidence, including an attempt to use a drone to monitor an opponent’s training session at the Copa America.
A representative for Priestman said The Athletics that she was shocked and devastated by FIFA’s decision.
(Photo: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
