In a significant blow to Canada’s hopes of defending their Olympic title, FIFA has deducted six points from the Canadian women’s football team and suspended their coach Beverly Priestman for a year following a drone spying incident.
FIFA stated, “Canada’s football association was responsible for failing to respect the applicable FIFA regulations in connection with… the prohibition on flying drones over any training sites,” and imposed a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs ($226,000). This deduction leaves Canada with minus three points in Group A before their match against France on Sunday in Saint-Etienne.
Analyst Joey Lombardi and assistant Jasime Mander were also suspended by FIFA for “any football-related activity for a period of one year” and sent home after Lombardi flew a drone over a New Zealand training session ahead of their opening game.
Canada Soccer chief executive Kevin Blue defended the team, stating, “The players themselves have not been involved in any unethical behaviour,” and appealed to FIFA, saying, “Specifically we do not feel that a deduction of points in this tournament would be fair to our players.”
Defender Vanessa Gilles expressed the team’s frustration, “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.”
Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive David Shoemaker also commented on the incident, raising concerns about past actions,
“Canada’s victory at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics might also have been stained by spying tactics,” He stated
