Casey Stoney, the new head coach of the Canada women’s national team, is ready to help the team move past what happened at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The former England captain and San Diego Wave coach is inheriting a team under the shadow of controversy. Canada was accused of flying drones over a New Zealand practice during the Olympics, and in November, an investigation found that senior coaching staff asked members of the coaching team to fly the drones to get “surreptitious film footage.” The team was docked six points during the group stage.
Now, Stoney is taking over from interim coach Andy Spence, after former coach Bev Priestman was given a one-year suspension and then fired due to the controversy.
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In her first comments as coach, Stoney said Monday that she would not have taken the role with Canada if she did not trust the direction of the program and the leadership of Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue.
“I spoke to the players in depth about Kevin (Blue). … I did my own research,” Stoney said. “I didn’t take this job without knowledge, and they spoke very highly of the difference that he’s been able to make in the short time that he’s come in. I felt like our values were aligned.”
Stoney said that she — and the athletes — are ready to move on.
“This is an opportunity for us now to move forward,” she said. “The players did an incredible job and the remaining staff that were there during the Olympics were able to put on some fantastic performances. It shows you the resilience of this group. But now they want to move forward.
“I don’t think you can question their character at all. It’s about now, what we can do moving forward, how we can improve the team. The team’s done fantastic. I’m just here to support, make it better, and make sure that the players are completely focused on what their job is, which is to win football matches.”
Blue confirmed that Stoney’s contract runs through 2027 — the next Women’s World Cup — with the option for 2028, which would take her to the next Summer Olympics.
Blue said the organization is ready to learn from its mistakes as it looks toward future competition.
“As a federation, as earnestly as we are trying to move forward, we are also being humble about learning from the past so as not to repeat the same mistakes again. And I’m not talking specifically about flying drones, I’m talking about some underlying structural issues that may have precipitated things that caused difficulty broadly in the federation over time,” Blue said.
“This is the sort of humble approach about understanding what happened, learning from it, then continuing an agenda of change and reform is something that the federation is committed to. Hopefully, bringing in people like Casey, who’s a world-class coach with strong values and character, is an example of what we’re trying to do.”
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(Photo: Ira L. Black / Corbis via Getty Images)
