PARIS: Canadian football chiefs on Friday pleaded for FIFA not to deduct points from their women’s Olympic football team amid a drone-spying scandal which led to head coach Bev Priestman being dramatically kicked out of the Paris Games in disgrace.

Canada Soccer chief executive Kevin Blue said in a conference call with reporters that Canadian players had not seen any footage produced by drones used to spy on a New Zealand training session before the games and therefore should not be punished by FIFA.

Reigning Olympic champions Canada defeated New Zealand 2-1 in their opening game of the women’s football tournament on Thursday despite the turmoil raging around the squad.

Canada Soccer announced early Friday that English coach Pries­tman had been suspended with immediate effect after initial investigations into the scandal revealed drone-spying which pre-dated the Paris Olympics.

Priestman’s departure came a day after assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joey Lomb­ardi were also sent home for their roles in the scandal. Assistant Andy Spence will coach Canada for the remainder of the Games.

Blue told reporters on Friday that there had been “frankly unacceptable shortcomings of ethical incidents” by members of the Canadian coaching team.

However, he pleaded with Fifa not to slap Canada with a points deduction which could potentially blow a hole in the defence of their Olympic crown.

“The players themselves have not been involved in any unethical behaviour,” Blue said. “And frankly we ask Fifa to take that into consideration if contemplating any further sanctions. Spec­ifically we do not feel that a dedu­c­tion of points in this tournament would be fair to our players.”

Blue said preliminary investigations had unearthed indications of what appeared to be “systemic ethical shortcomings” but was unable to clarify how long Canada’s coaching staff had been using drones to spy on rival training sessions.

“I received new internal information from internal sources that gave me reason to think further about the potential that this type of behavior was systemic,” Blue said. “Concrete information I received yesterday made me consider the possibility that this matter is much more extensive.”

Asked if the tactic had been used at last year’s Women’s World Cup, where Canada failed to progress from the group stage, Blue said he was unable to say at this stage. “This is all happening in real-time,” he said.

But he was adamant that none of Canada’s players had access to the footage obtained in Paris. “I am stating right now that the team has not seen any of that footage,” he said.

Canadian Olympic Comm­ittee CEO David Shoemaker also said he was comfortable with Canada’s team remaining in Paris to defend their Olympic gold medal amid rumblings the team should be disqualified over the scandal that has thrust them into an unsavoury spotlight.

“One of the key pieces of information was the conclusion from Canada Soccer that [Priestman] needed to be suspended based on their accumulation of facts,” Shoe­maker said during Canada’s opening press conference on Friday.

“I’ve seen some of the information they have, and we gathered some additional information ourselves that made me conclude that she was highly likely to have been aware of the incidents here.”

The scandal in Paris has led to angry calls for the Canadian women’s team to be sent home from the Games.

“I’m comfortable with the team competing as it is,” Shoemaker said. “We’ve made decisions as it relates to the ultimate sanction we have, participation on Team Canada here in Paris at the Olympic Games, that we get to nominate athletes and coaches to Team Canada and we get to remove them.

“If more facts and circumstances emerge, we can continue to contemplate further action as necessary. It’s important to me that Canadians’ questions are answered, and so we’re going to continue to do our best to answer those questions.”

Canadian sports network TSN reported that drone use predates the 2024 Olympics, with two sources with first-hand knowledge telling TSN the team has filmed other opponents’ closed-door training sessions, including during the 2020 Olympic tournament.

“There now appears to be information that could tarnish that Olympic performance in Tokyo, makes me sick to my stomach to think that there could be something that calls into question one of my favourite Olympic moments in history — that women’s team winning that gold medal against all odds, in those Covidrestrictions,” said Shoemaker.

“We encourage and I know Canada Soccer will investigate all of this fully, including Tokyo, [and] we’ll not only co-operate fully but more collaborate to make sure they get to the bottom of it.

“While I don’t like any tarnish that surely has resulted already, we must do what’s right. We’ve been speaking for years now about the importance of winning well, and when we’ve been given a limited opportunity as it relates to the soccer team to send that message, that winning well is the only way, we’ve got to send that message.”

Canada’s players had insisted they were innocent of wrongdoing after their opening victory over the New Zealanders on Thursday.

“There was a lot of emotion, frustration and humiliation because as a player, it doesn’t reflect our values and what we want to represent as competitors at the Olympics,” defender Van­essa Gilles said.

“The Games represent fair play. As Canad­ians, these are not our values or those of our country. We are not cheats. It was very hard but we knew how to be united.”

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2024