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2024 Paris Olympics: A timeline of the Canadian soccer spygate scandal in France

A Canadian staffer was detained and sent home after a drone incident several days before the Opening Ceremony in Paris

sean leahy · ryan young
·10 min read

We didn’t even make it to the Opening Ceremony before a spying scandal rocked the 2024 Paris Olympics.

A Canadian soccer staff member was caught flying a drone over a New Zealand practice earlier this week in France ahead of their group stage game on Thursday. The staffer in question was detained and eventually sent home from the Games after French police searched his hotel room and recovered the drone footage.

That, of course, has prompted multiple investigations.

While there are still plenty of questions to be figured out, here’s everything we know so far about the Canadian soccer spying scandal in Paris.

New Zealand opened practices on Saturday in France ahead of the Olympics.

The local prosecutor's office said that a supervisor of the Olympic training site informed police that a drone was hovering over Auguste Dury stadium on Monday. The team manager of New Zealand had informed the supervisor of the drone and immediately stopped the training session.

Police later arrested 43-year-old Joseph Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst” with the Canadian women’s soccer team, who was operating the drone and filmed the closed-door training session. Lombard's hotel room was searched and the drone was seized. He admitted that the videos of two closed training sessions (including one from July 20) "had enabled him to learn the tactics of the opposing team."

Lombardi was charged with flying an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area, and accepted an eight-month suspended sentence. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander was interviewed and not charged.

FILE - Canada's head coach Bev Priestman gestures during the Women's World Cup Group B soccer match between Australia and Canada in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, July 31, 2023. FIFA deducted six points from Canada in the Paris Olympics women’s soccer tournament and banned three coaches, including Priestman, for one year each on Saturday, July 27, 2204, in a drone spying scandal. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair, File)

The COC issued a statement saying that they were made aware that a non-accredited member of the Canada Soccer support team was detained by French authorities after New Zealand lodged their complaint.

The complaint said that a Canada Soccer staff member allegedly used a drone to record the New Zealand women's team's training session on July 22.

The COC offered its "heartfelt apologies" to the New Zealand players and said they would review next steps with the IOC, Paris 2024, Canada Soccer and FIFA.

Following the COC review of the drone incident, they discovered a second incident involving a drone and the July 19 New Zealand training session.

Upon learning these new details, two staff members — Lombardi and Mander — were removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and sent home immediately.

Canada women's head coach Bev Priestman told the COC she would step aside for the team's opening Olympic match against New Zealand on July 25.

“On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada. This does not represent the values that our team stands for,” Priestman said in a statement. “I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program. Accordingly, to emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld.”

Canada Soccer staff was also ordered to undergo mandatory ethics training.

With Priestman back at the team's hotel and assistant coach Andy Spence in charge, Canada picked up a 2-1 win over New Zealand on Thursday in their first group stage game of the Olympics.

Cloé Lacasse scored first for the Canadians in extra time just before halftime, which evened the match up after Mackenzie Barry scored in the opening minutes for New Zealand. Interestingly, Barry's goal came off a set piece. Canada's Evelyne Viens then scored in the 79th minute to put Canada up by a goal and eventually give them the win.

The win gave Canada three points in Group A, which has them tied with France in the lead early. France beat Colombia in their first group stage game 3-2 on Thursday.

Canada and France will square off Sunday.

Shortly after their win over New Zealand, Canada Soccer announced that it has suspended Preistman for the remainder of the Games. Priestman was then sent home from the Olympics, and Spence was named the team's interim coach.

The announcement came as a report from TSN alleged that the spying was something that has been going on for years within both the men's and women's national teams. The women's team even allegedly used drones to spy on opponents both during the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where they won the gold medal — and the following year as they were trying to qualify for the Women's World Cup.

Kevin Blue, Canada Soccer CEO, held a press conference on Friday and said that no players were involved in the drone spying scandal and that he hopes FIFA takes into consideration how the federation handled the situation if more punishment is to come.

On the topic of the men's and women's teams spying in the past, Blue said he learned this week that there was "attempted drone usage" by a member of the men's coaching staff during Copa América. Blue said Canada men's head coach Jesse Marsch learned about it "after the fact" and "has denounced it as a practice to his staff."

“They gave me reasons to think further about the potential that this behavior was systemic,” Blue said.

Blue added that he believes Canada Soccer's reaction to the scandal was appropriate enough that he has not considered withdrawing the team from the Olympics.

Former Canada WNT captain Christine Sinclair, who retired from international competition in October, said in a statement on Instagram that she and the team were never shown drone footage in her 23 years on the team.

"It's unfortunate that the players of our National Team have had to play through condemnable actions by some of their staff as they attempt to defend our gold medal. Actions players have no control over," Sinclair wrote.

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A post shared by Christine Sinclair (@c_sinc12)

Sinclair racked up 331 caps during her time with Canada, and played in four Olympics. Sinclair finished her statement by saying that she planned to support the players throughout the tournament, and asked Canadians to do the same.

FIFA has added to the penalties against the Canada women's soccer team for using drones to record opponents' practices.

The organization docked six points from the team in the Paris Olympics women's soccer tournament, which is the equivalent of two wins. Coach Bev Priestman was also banned from world competition for one year, reports the Associated Press.

Canada's next match is against host country France on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.

Canada's spying has apparently been known in the soccer world for quite some time.

According to a report from ESPN's Sam Borden, U.S. Soccer has known about and been the victims of several spying incidents in recent years. They caught a Canada Soccer staffer spying on them during a practice in 2021, and Canada allegedly attempted to use drones to spy on teams ahead of Copa América earlier this summer.

Yet U.S. Soccer never reported it, in part due to concerns it would impact their relationship ahead of the joint bid for the World Cup in 2026, among other things.

“It wasn’t worth it with so many bigger-ticket issues out there,” a source told ESPN. “But that doesn’t mean it didn’t matter.”

In hopes of overturning their six-point deduction, Canada Soccer and the Canadian Olympic Committee filed a joint appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

This will be a fast-track case with a hearing likely taking place on Tuesday and a decision expected Wednesday. The appeal is focused solely on the points deduction and not the bans for head coach Bev Priestman, assistant Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi.

"The appeal is based on the disproportionality of the sanction, which we believe unfairly punishes the athletes for actions they had no part in and goes far beyond restoring fairness to the match against New Zealand," Canada Soccer said in a statement.

Canada still can advance to the knockout portion of the tournament despite the six-point deduction and sitting on zero points. A win over Colombia in their final match on Wednesday could secure a place in the next round if they are one of the two best third-place teams in the three groups.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the joint appeal from the COC and Canada Soccer in regards to FIFA docking the women's Olympic team six points after being caught using a drone to spy on training sessions in Paris.

"The application filed by the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer (the Applicants) in relation to the six-point deduction imposed on the Canadian women’s soccer team for the football tournament at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 has been dismissed," read the decision from CAS.

"The Applicants sought a decision from the CAS Ad hoc Division either cancelling or reducing the points deduction imposed by the FIFA Appeal Committee in its decision of 27 July 2024 after it established that breaches of the FIFA regulations applicable to the Olympic football tournament concerning the prohibition on flying drones over training sites had occurred."

Canada won its first two group games and sit on zero points following the points deduction. They play Colombia on Wednesday and a win could secure a place in the next round if they are one of the two best third-place teams in the three groups.

With a 1-0 win over Colombia, Canada's gold-medal defense continues. The team made it through pool play and onto the quarterfinals, despite the six-point deduction it received on Saturday. Canada will face Germany on Saturday, and if they win and the USWNT beats Japan, it'll be a Canada-USWNT semifinal.

Canada was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Germany after penalty kicks. The Germans converted four of their five attempts, including the winning shot by goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger. Canada had two of their attempts saved by Berger.