Canada Soccer suspends women’s team head coach amid further allegations of spying on opposing teams

Following the bombshell news that staff from the Canadian women’s national soccer team used drones to spy on the New Zealand national team, whistleblowers claim that the practice has been going on for years and that the head coach was aware of it.

Canada Soccer has suspended the head coach of the women’s soccer team, Bev Priestman, and the Canadian Olympic Committee has excluded her from the Olympic team in connection with the scandal.

Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue announced the suspension and launched an external investigation into the allegations.

“Over the last 24 hours, we have received further information regarding previous drone strikes against opponents ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games,” Blue said.

“In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the decision to suspend women’s national soccer team head coach Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and pending the completion of our recently announced independent external review.”

David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said Priestman was likely aware that drones were being used to spy on opposing teams in France.

“I’ve seen some of them, some of the information they have, and we’ve gathered some additional information ourselves that led me to conclude that she most likely knew about the incident here in Saint-Etienne,” Shoemaker said.

Earlier this week, Priestman offered to sit out Canada’s game against New Zealand on Wednesday in a “spirit of responsibility.”

Anonymous sources told TSN that Canada’s men’s and women’s teams have been using drones to spy on their opponents’ training sessions for years, dating back to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where the women’s team won the gold medal.

According to the sources, the Canadian national team already used drones in a game on November 15, 2019 against the US men’s national team, which the Americans won 4-1.

The Honduran men’s national team had to cancel a training session before a 2021 World Cup qualifier in Toronto after a drone was spotted in the sky.

Former men’s national team head coach John Herdman confirmed the incident and claimed that an overzealous fan may have been responsible for the incident.

“I’m sure there are a lot of people in Canada who fly drones,” Herdman said.

“And when a big team like the one from Honduras shows up, I’m sure people are probably interested in what they’re doing when they come to our country. So I know we’re not going to go into people’s countries too early because of course with drones these days you can get footage. You have to be really careful.”

Canadian team employees are accused of spying on a training session of the Japanese women’s national team at the 2021 Olympics before a match between Canada and Japan ended in a 1-1 draw.

A Canada Soccer contractor was caught attempting to film the Panama women’s national team during World Cup qualifiers in July 2022, leading to a complaint to Canada Soccer and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, one of FIFA’s governing bodies.

True North reached out to Team Canada for comment but did not receive a response.