FIFA suspends Canada's women's soccer coach for one year after Olympic spying scandal

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PARIS — The coach of the Canadian women's national soccer team has been suspended from the sport for a year after a spying scandal at this summer's Olympic Games, a FIFA disciplinary panel announced Saturday.

In addition, Canada's Olympic team — which is defending the gold medal won in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 — will be penalized with a deduction of six points from its group stage total, FIFA said, a move that essentially guarantees the team will be eliminated from contention.

The decision

On Friday, when the details began to come to light about the spying, the head of the Canadian Olympic Committee, David Shoemaker, said, "We continue to be shocked and disappointed." He went on to tell reporters, "We feel very much frustrated as I'm sure all Canadians do at this point."

The scandal began with the arrest of a man in Saint-Etienne, France. The local prosecutor said on two separate occasions, a man linked to the Canadian team “had effectively filmed the closed-door training of the New Zealand women’s team, with the help of a drone," the statement read.

The footage taken on July 22 show the New Zealand players applying instructions given to them by their trainer, as well as images taken on July 20 — a previously unknown instance that he admitted during questioning — when they were training in the Michon stadium in Saint-Etienne.

Canada's women's coach, Beverly Priestman, initially said she would voluntarily sit out of Canada's Thursday match against New Zealand. (Canada won 2-1.)

Then, on Thursday, Canada's national soccer federation announced that it had suspended Priestman for the remainder of the Olympic Games.

“Over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games," Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue said in a statement. "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 until the completion of our recently announced independent external review.”

"We are contemplating getting to the bottom of this circumstance in a professional and thorough way. And then we will make decisions on what to do about it once we have information that's been substantiated," Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue said in a press conference Friday.

Canada's team will continue to be led by assistant coach Andy Spence for the rest of the Olympics.