We didn’t even get to the Opening Ceremony when a spying scandal rocked the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A member of the Canadian soccer team was caught flying a drone over New Zealand training earlier this week in France ahead of their group stage game on Thursday. The employee in question was detained and eventually sent home after the Games after French police searched his hotel room and recovered drone footage.
This, of course, sparked several investigations.
While there are still many questions to be resolved, here is everything we know so far about the Canadian football spy scandal in Paris.
July 20: New Zealand trains at the Michon Stadium in Saint-Etienne
New Zealand opened training on Saturday in France ahead of the Olympics.
O local prosecutor said a supervisor at the Olympic training site informed police that a drone was hovering over the Auguste Dury Stadium on Monday. The New Zealand team leader informed the drone supervisor and immediately stopped the training session.
Police later arrested 43-year-old Joseph Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst” for the Canadian women’s national soccer team, who operated the drone and filmed the training session behind closed doors. Lombard’s hotel room was searched and the drone was seized. He admitted that videos of two closed training sessions (including one from July 20) “allowed him to learn the opposing team’s tactics.”
Lombardi was charged with flying an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area and accepted an eight-month suspended sentence. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander was interviewed and was not charged.
O COC issued a statement saying they were informed that an unaccredited member of Canada Soccer’s support team had been detained by French authorities after New Zealand lodged its complaint.
The complaint said a Canada Soccer staff member allegedly used a drone to record the New Zealand women’s team training on July 22.
The COC offered its “sincere apologies” to the New Zealand players and said it would review next steps with the IOC, Paris 2024, Canada Soccer and FIFA.
July 24: Canada coach Bev Priestman withdraws from opening match
Following the COC Review After the drone incident, they discovered a second incident involving a drone and the July 19 training session in New Zealand.
Upon learning of these new details, two team members – Lombardi and Mander – were removed from the Canadian Olympic team and sent home immediately.
Canada women’s coach Bev Priestman told the COC she would step aside for the Olympic team’s opening match against New Zealand on July 25.
“On behalf of our entire team, I want to first and foremost apologize to the New Zealand football players and staff and to the players on Team Canada. This does not represent the values our team stands for,” Priestman said in a statement. “I am ultimately responsible for the conduct of our program. Therefore, to emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily step down as coach of Thursday’s game. In the spirit of responsibility, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure that everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is respected.”
Canada Soccer staff were also required to undergo mandatory ethics training.
July 25: Canada-New Zealand game
With Priestman back at the team hotel and assistant coach Andy Spence at the helm, Canada cruised to a 2-1 victory over New Zealand on Thursday in their first group game of the Olympics.
Cloé Lacasse scored first for the Canadians in extra time just before halftime, which tied the match after Mackenzie Barry scored in the opening minutes for New Zealand. Interestingly, Barry’s goal came from a dead ball. Canada’s Evelyne Viens scored in the 79th minute to put Canada ahead by one goal and eventually give them the victory.
The victory gave Canada three points in Group A, which moved them level with France at the top. France beat Colombia in the first group stage game 3-2 on Thursday.
Canada and France will face each other on Sunday.
July 25: Canada suspends and sends coach Bev Priestman
Shortly after the victory over New Zealand, Canada Soccer announced it had suspended Preistman for the remainder of the Games. Priestman was then sent home after the Olympics and Spence was named interim coach of the team.
The announcement came as a TSN report alleged that spying was something that had been happening for years in the men’s and women’s teams. The women’s team even used drones to spy on opponents both during the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo – where they won the gold medal – and the following year, while trying to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.
