The Canadian soccer spy scandal apparently came as no surprise to the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Canada’s Olympic soccer team was ahead of the Games last week, which triggered a point deduction penalty and a 0.000 penalty.
USA Football, according to Sam Borden of ESPN, has been aware of Canada’s spying tactics for some time – even when Canada tried to spy on American teams. The federation simply never reported it to a governing body, in part due to larger projects the two countries have been working on, including the joint bid with Mexico for the 2026 World Cup.
“It wasn’t worth it with so many bigger problems out there,” a source told ESPN. “But that doesn’t mean it didn’t matter.”
There have been several cases in recent years where US soccer officials caught someone spying on practices. In 2021, for example, security repeatedly encountered a man attending a closed men’s team practice at the IMG Academy in Florida. When the man was finally confronted, he admitted he worked for Canada Soccer.
A Canadian official was caught flying a drone over New Zealand training in Paris earlier this month, ahead of their Olympic group stage game. That employee was later charged by French police and sent home after the Games, along with Priestman and another assistant. Priestman self-imposed a one-game suspension before being sent home and did not attend the win over New Zealand. Assistant coach Andy Spence will lead Canada through the rest of the Olympics.
A TSN report this week also alleged that the spying has been going on for years. The women’s team reportedly used drones to spy on their opponents at the 2021 Games in Tokyo, where they won the gold medal, and in 2022, as they tried to qualify for the Women’s World Cup. The men’s team reportedly flew a drone over Honduras training last year, and attempted to do so during training ahead of the Copa América earlier this summer.
The Canadian women’s team will face France next Sunday afternoon. They will close out group play against Colombia next week.
