Canada’s women’s soccer players have insisted they had “nothing” to do with the team’s drone surveillance plan at the Olympics.
The scandal, which has forced three staff members including head coach Bev Priestman to return home from the Olympics, also resulted in the reigning gold medallists being docked six points ahead of their second match against France.
However, Canada scored dramatically in second-half stoppage time to beat the hosts and keep their hopes alive, and then firmly rejected the notion that they were cheats.
“It’s been 72 hours in which we have no control over anything,” Vanessa Gilles, scorer of the winning goal, said via ESPN.
“We are not part of any of this and we are being sanctioned as if we were caught doping. We did nothing. We are tired of defending ourselves from something we cannot control.”
Canada, which suffered a six-point deduction over the scandal, kept its Olympic hopes alive with a last-gasp win over France.
Suspended coach Bev Priestman apologized to her players in a statement on Sunday.
“We don’t have any advantage,” Giles continued. “We go out there, we play our hearts out, we work for this all year, day in and day out. So it’s the uncontrollable factors that create the most anger and the most frustration.”
Before Canada’s opening game at the Olympics against New Zealand, it was revealed that the team had used drones to spy on their opponents, and assistant coach Jasmine Mander, “uncredited” analyst Joseph Lombardi and head coach Priestman were ultimately sent home.
All three were also banned for one year by FIFA from any football-related activity.
Beyond these Olympics, questions have arisen surrounding Canada’s gold medal in Tokyo, with TSN Reports that Canada’s men’s and women’s teams have been trying to film their opponents’ training sessions “for years,” including in 2021 in Tokyo.
Priestman, who apologized to his players on Sunday, insisted spying played no role in the team’s victory in Tokyo.
Canada’s Vanessa Gilles said players are ‘tired of defending ourselves’ over scandal
Giles added Sunday that she’s “never felt so many emotions going into a game,” and teammate Kailen Sheridan added that “there’s so much negativity directed at us.”
“We feel like we have nothing to do with everything that’s going on,” Sheridan said. “We’re under attack right now. We’re the target of the darts. Unfortunately, we had to accept that. For us to come together and really shut ourselves off from the world was a very difficult decision.”
The players’ denial of involvement in drone spying was echoed by Canadian Soccer Federation CEO Kevin Blue, who said at a news conference Friday that players at the Paris Olympics had not seen any drone footage of Lombardi.
A man matching Lombardi’s description was arrested last week by French authorities after a drone was discovered flying over the New Zealand practice.
However, Canada now has a chance to advance despite the points deduction after beating New Zealand and France.
On Wednesday they will face Colombia with a chance of advancing.