It was a stunning play that deserved to be celebrated with all the appropriate fanfare.
Canada’s Jessie Fleming delivered a brilliant pass through a crowded pitch inside Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Etienne. The ball was perfectly placed into the open space in front of forward Evelyne Viens, who had just come onto the field. All it took was one touch at the right angle for Viens to drill the ball past New Zealand’s goalkeeper, giving Canada a well-deserved lead in their opening match of the Paris Olympic Games.
The 79th-minute goal helped Canada to win their first game of the tournament, a positive first step on what they hope will be the path to repeating the gold medal success they enjoyed in Tokyo at the 2021 Games.
The assist coming from 26-year-old Fleming, who has filled the captaincy vacancy left behind by Canadian great Christine Sinclair, was a symbolic demonstration that this new generation is willing to carry the torch towards a new chapter for her national team.
But Thursday’s 2-1 victory, and any subsequent success in Paris, will be remembered with an ugly footnote due to a cheating scandal that erupted days earlier. It involved a Canadian soccer analyst twice using a drone to spy on New Zealand before their opening clash, led to the Canada women’s head coach being sent home, and could yet run and run…
GO DEEPER
Canada’s Olympic soccer spying scandal explained: Who’s involved, what’s next and more
On Monday, the New Zealand Olympic Committee complained to police about a drone flying over their women’s team’s soccer practice. Police quickly tracked down the drone’s pilot, Joseph Lombardi, only for it to turn out he was an analyst with Canada Soccer.
The fallout was swift over the next 72 hours.
Lombardi and Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach, were immediately sent home from the Games. Canada’s head coach Bev Priestman voluntarily withdrew from overseeing Thursday’s match against New Zealand.
“I am ultimately responsible for the conduct in our program,” Priestman said. “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.”
Priestman was initially expected to return to the sidelines on Sunday when Canada face France in Saint-Etienne, before the final group game against Colombia on Wednesday in Nice.
David Shoemaker, CEO and secretary general of the Canadian Olympic Committee, told a press conference on Wednesday that Priestman and Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue “said unequivocally that they did not know that these recordings had happened and were not involved”. The footage obtained “was solely in the possession of the individual who had flown the drone,” he added.
Shoemaker said: “The removal of two key staff (Mander and Lombardi) from Canada Soccer and its team, and the head coach missing the first match of the Olympic tournament, will undoubtedly be debated by some. We believe that these actions, and the mandatory ethics education we have imposed, at least mitigate any advantage Canada may have had, or be seen to have had, against New Zealand Football and their women’s national team.
“Though the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) wants to see Team Canada on the podium as much as anyone, winning the right way is the only way for us.”
There were also legal implications for Lombardi, who received an eight-month suspended sentence for his actions. Regulations in France are strict, barring drone operators from flying the aircrafts over people. Any images or recordings cannot be shared without a person’s consent.
Lombardi was positioned just outside the stadium where New Zealand were training, a police investigation found. Footage on his computer later showed he also spied on a previous practice session on July 20, though the evidence fell short of proving Mander knew Lombardi was using a drone to spy on the team. The investigation also did not implicate Priestman in any way.
The fallout was — and is — likely far from over, though.
A FIFA investigation is pending, with no timeline given by world soccer’s governing body for how long its process could take. The Canadian Olympic Committee also said it planned to review the incident and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it would review a complaint it received from the New Zealand Olympic Committee.
“At the Olympic Games, we expect all the teams to behave and compete with respect,” the IOC told The Athletic on Thursday.
Canada Soccer also launched a review, promising transparency.
“This review will address the circumstances and, more broadly, will seek to understand the historical culture of competitive ethics within all of our programs,” it said. “The outcome of this review will be shared publicly and corrective actions, if necessary, will be taken.”
Priestman was sent home from the Olympics on Thursday (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
But the review had barely begun before an announcement came on Thursday evening that Priestman, too, was being sent home, with assistant coach Andy Spence taking charge for the rest of the competition.
“Over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the 2024 Paris Olympics,” Canada Soccer CEO Blue said in a statement.
“In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has suspended Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and until the completion of our recently announced independent external review.”
The distinction to pin down whether this is a systemic issue in Canada Soccer is significant. In 2021 in Toronto, it was reported by the Honduran press that Honduras’ national team stopped a training session before a men’s World Cup qualifier against Canada after spotting a drone above the field.
The incident was essentially shrugged off, with Canada’s coach at the time, John Herdman, saying, “I’d imagine there are probably a lot of people in Canada that fly drones.” That incident seems far less trivial three years later.
This drone scandal has left Canada Soccer without its women’s head coach and with a stain that will be tough to remove. It resulted in a fall from grace for a national team that, on paper, should have been able to beat New Zealand without the need for any surveillance. Canada are the reigning gold medalists, and New Zealand’s women’s team have only won two of the 13 matches they have played at the Olympics.
Was the pressure to deliver better results than Canada’s underwhelming performance at last year’s Women’s World Cup too much for staffers? Or is this emblematic of a larger issue within Canadian soccer that needs to be addressed head-on?
Players, including Canada’s Janine Beckie, have openly condemned the actions taken by those on the team’s coaching staff, as have other Canadian leaders. “We’re obviously super disappointed,” Beckie said. “It doesn’t reflect Canadians or who we are as competitors.”
Now it will be up to the players to prove who they are on the pitch.
(Top photo: Arnaud Finistre/AFP via Getty Images)
