Soccer Canada name Spence interim head coach of women’s team

Soccer Canada has named Andy Spence of Liverpool, England the new interim head coach of the Canadian Women’s Soccer National Team effective immediately. Spence takes over from Bev Priestman, who was suspended one year by FIFA on Saturday for her role in a drone flying over the New Zealand practice in Paris prior to the Olympic Games on Monday. It has since been reported by TSN that Soccer Canada have used drones in the past.

FIFA also suspended assistant coach Jasmine Mander and team analyst Joseph Lombardi one year, fined Soccer Canada $313,000 and most importantly docked Canada six points in the Olympic women’s soccer tournament. In essence, this means Canada’s 2-1 win over New Zealand does not count. It should be noted that New Zealand does not get three points for beating Canada either. So the Canadians are currently at -3 points and must beat France and Colombia to advance to the quarterfinals. These are historic times in women’s soccer indeed.

We do not know at this time how much Spence knew about flying the drone, other than he was not operating the drone on Monday and was not the head coach of the team when the incident took place. Spence received a Bachelor of Science degree from Liverpool John Moores University in 2005, and has been working with the Canadian National Women’s Soccer team since 2022. He also spent 14 years coaching the Everton Ladies Football Club from 2004 to 2018. Spence was an assistant coach from 2004 to 2012, and head coach from 2012 to 2018.