Another Spygate scandal could be on the horizon as Canadian women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman has been sent home from the Paris Olympics amid a series of drone spying allegations.
The Canadian Soccer Federation confirmed Thursday that Priestman was suspended after being presented with “additional information” regarding “the prior use of drones against opponents, prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
Assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi were also sent home earlier this week.
Assistant coach Andy Spence will replace Priestman for the remainder of the tournament after team members allegedly used drones to spy on rival New Zealand, which was defeated by Canada 2-1 in the first round.
The decision to suspend Priestman just a day before the Games’ Opening Ceremony follows a bombshell TSN Reportwhich states that “technical staff and contractors working with Canada’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams have been involved for years in efforts to film their opponents’ closed-door training sessions.”
Canadian women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman sent home from Paris Olympics
Canadian Soccer Federation employees allegedly used drones to spy on rival New Zealand earlier this week
Multiple sources told the outlet that the team engaged in spying tactics during the Olympic tournament where they won the women’s gold medal in 2021.
The well-placed individuals, described as having “direct knowledge of the activity,” also claimed the filming took place ahead of a “women’s national team match against Panama in July 2022, as Canada was attempting to qualify for the Women’s World Cup in Australia.”
Some staff members were reportedly told they could lose their jobs if they did not follow orders relating to filming by rival crews.
“In a couple of scenarios, people have been pressured and told, ‘You have to give 110 percent and this is part of the job, so if you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you don’t have a place on the team,'” one of the sources said.
“It’s not something that’s talked about and it’s not something that’s texted a lot about because of how sensitive the subject is. Some of the people who have had to do the filming or review it have told some of the staff how uncomfortable it was for them.”
It is unclear whether the players were aware of the strategy of recording their opponents’ practices.
FIFA’s disciplinary committee said earlier it had opened proceedings against the Canadian Soccer Federation.
Priestman is one of three coaches on the team under investigation amid the scandal.
Insiders also claimed that staff members linked to the men’s national team filmed their competitors’ closed-door training sessions, including the U.S. practice session ahead of a November 2019 game in Florida.
Both sources explained that filming an opponent’s practice session had several benefits.
“We know their formations, their starting line-up,” said one of the experts. “We also look at who takes the penalties and their set-pieces.”
They added: “Most people see it as cheating, and it is. Some of our coaches see it as just a competitive advantage and justify it by saying that everyone does it, which is also not true. Not everyone cheats and neither should we.”
The scandal is reminiscent of the NFL’s Spygate scandal of 2007, in which coach Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots were caught recording the hand signals of rival New York Jets from the sideline in an attempt to gain information about plays.
Shocking TSN report claims Canada’s men’s and women’s teams have been ‘spying for years’
NFL fans will remember that Bill Belichick’s Patriots were caught filming the opposing Jets in 2007
After a protracted legal battle, Belichick was fined $500,000 for his role, while the Patriots paid a $250,000 fine and lost the team’s first-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Another high-tech spying scandal has broken out in baseball against the 2017 world champion Houston Astros.
In 2020, Major League Baseball revealed the results of an investigation that found the existence of a sign-stealing system in 2017 that allowed the Astros dugout to intercept and decipher hand signals between opposing pitchers and catchers.
As first detailed in a 2019 article in The Athletic, the organization recorded opposing catchers’ hand signals with a video camera in the center-field stands at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Players in the dugout would watch a live feed from the camera to decipher the signs and relay that information to hitters by banging on a trash can. Typically, one or two bangs would signal a breaking ball for Astros hitters, while no bangs would indicate an incoming fastball.
That plan resulted in suspensions for former Houston bench coach Alex Cora, who was managing the Red Sox at the time and remains in Boston today, as well as general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch.
Several Astros players have apologized for their role in the scheme, such as third baseman Alex Bregman, but publicly the team remains tainted by the scandal, even after winning the 2022 World Series seemingly without the benefit of any sign-stealing.
