Canada loses appeal in drone-spying scandal as new FIFA details emerge

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday upheld a six-point Olympic tournament deduction for the Canadian women’s soccer team in a drone spying scandal, affirming FIFA’s choice to heavily limit the reigning gold medalist facing sharp questions about its tactics to engineer a repeat.

The dismissal of Canada’s appeal came hours before the entire field, with 12 teams split among three divisions, was set to compete in the final games of group play, a decisive moment with four teams to be eliminated by the end of Wednesday night.

It also came as FIFA released a full report of the findings that led to its decision to punish Canada for using a drone to watch New Zealand practice ahead of their Olympic opener. The report revealed a damning picture of Canada’s use of drones to surveil opposing training sessions.

Emails from Bev Priestman, Canada’s coach who was sent home from the Olympics as national officials tried to shield players from fallout, mentioned regular spying in both men’s and women’s soccer, which Priestman described in one correspondence as something that “can be the difference between winning and losing.”

An attorney for Priestman did not return a message seeking comment.

On the pitch, the immediate implications were stark for Canada, which lost the credit for its first two Olympic wins and now needs another victory to leapfrog Colombia and continue in the tournament. They are scheduled to play at 9 p.m. local time in Nice (3 p.m. ET).

Canada would be eliminated with a draw or loss – and needs an undefeated run at the Paris Games to earn a coveted repeat gold medal like the one it won at the Tokyo Games, a stretch that has also come under question.

CAS’ decision was also highly relevant to other teams, with France tied with Colombia atop Canada’s Group A at the start of Wednesday, and Australia and Brazil in third-place positions in Groups B and C, respectively. Only two of the three third-place finishers advance to the quarterfinals. The math of a reversal or a reduction of the penalty created dizzying combinations for who could advance and how they should strategize for Wednesday’s games, all hinged on the decision of a CAS tribunal set up temporarily in Paris to hear Olympic cases.

CAS did not give a reason for its dismissal, but acknowledged the urgency of the Games and said it would share fuller details about its decision later, without the immediate pressure of tournament implications.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer had sought to blunt FIFA’s ruling through CAS with their appeal. Canada Soccer said in a statement Wednesday that it was disappointed with the result but still believed “our players should not have been unnecessarily punished for actions that were not their own.” It added that an independent external review had begun.

“Canada Soccer will continue to communicate regularly about this issue and take swift, decisive steps to restore public trust,” the statement said.

In addition to the points deduction, FIFA suspended Priestman, and two other team staffers for one year and issued a fine. Canada did not dispute the suspensions.

On Wednesday, FIFA publicly shared emails between Priestman and an analyst who was hesitant about spying on other teams, and between Priestman and a human resources official to discuss the analyst’s position.

In an email sent March 20, the performance analyst, whose name was redacted from FIFA’s report, contacted Priestman about preparing for Olympic opponents. The email put into writing the analyst’s unwillingness to scout other teams via drone.

“As discussed yesterday, in terms of the ‘spying’ conversation, I came off the meeting with clarity that you understood my reasons for me being unwilling to do this moving forward,” the analyst wrote.

The analyst gave a bulleted list of reasons for not wanting to spy: “Morally,” “my own reputation within the analysis field,” and “potentially being unable to fulfill my role on a matchday.”

The analyst confirmed that they would have “a discussion with Joey” (referring to Joseph Lombardi, who was also suspended by FIFA and was the analyst detained by police for flying a drone at New Zealand training) and talk to Canada Soccer’s technical team about “other solutions.”

The analyst asked Priestman to not seek again for the analyst to “fulfill the role of ‘spying’ in the upcoming camp and future camps.”

Priestman then emailed a human resources representative for Canada Soccer for advice about “this formal email on spying,” saying it was a task the analyst regularly performed.

“I know there is a whole operation on the Men’s side with regards to it (we had (redacted) in with us recently and he was outstanding in this area),” Priestman wrote.

Priestman noted that she had asked the analyst for alternatives to drone surveillance, “as for scouting it can be the difference between winning and losing and all top 10 teams do it.”

The spying first came to light July 22, when New Zealand team staff members noticed a drone flying above their practice in Saint-Étienne, France, and notified police. Law enforcement tracked the drone back to Lombardi, an analyst with the Canadian women’s team, and the Canadian Olympic Committee later acknowledged a separate drone incident at a New Zealand training on July 19.

FIFA’s decision concerned Canada Soccer’s actions at the Olympics only, leaving open room for additional punishment for any wider system of spying.

Before Priestman’s suspension from FIFA, she was suspended through the Olympics and Canada Soccer said it was investigating both the men’s and women’s soccer programs widely. Priestman pledged to fully cooperate with that investigation in a statement Sunday, when she apologized to Canada’s players.

Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue said that based on what he had learned during the investigation, he was concerned there was “a potential long-term, deeply embedded systemic culture” of surveillance of other teams. Blue said he was aware of an attempt to use a drone during the men’s tournament at Copa America, but he said that current men’s coach Jesse Marsch was unaware of its use until after the fact.

Canada Soccer told FIFA on Saturday that Priestman’s references to spying in the men’s program referenced a specific person. FIFA’s report did not include any names, but said it was “a practice started by one person – (redacted) – and continued by Bev Priestman. It was not facilitated by the federation.”

John Herdman, the current head coach of Toronto FC, was head coach of the women’s national team from 2011 to 2018, before taking over the men’s national team from 2018 to 2023. In a press conference last week when asked about the Olympic drone scandal, he replied, “I’ll help Canada Soccer where I can with that review, but I’m highly confident that in my time as a head coach at an Olympic Games or World Cup, we’ve never been involved in any of those activities.”

In its report, FIFA noted that it had reminded teams in June that drones could not be used for spying during the Olympics.

FIFA ended its report by noting its scope limited to the Paris Games, and that it expected the findings of an internal investigation by Canada Soccer “in order for it to be able to assess and decide whether further action by the FIFA bodies is necessary and appropriate.”

Lukas Weese contributed reporting.

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