Canadian football coach Bev Priestman removed over Olympic cheating scandal

Canada’s Olympic women’s football gold medal defence is in tatters after a cheating scandal even raised questions over their Tokyo victory.

Canada's Olympic gold medal defence has come into question. Photo: Getty Images

Questions have arisen over Canada’s gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics after head coach Bev Priestman was removed as coach for the remainder of the Olympics after the Paris spying drama took a wild twist.

Priestman took Canada to a shock Olympic gold at the 2021 Olympics but has been removed as head coach for the remainder of the Olympics after Canada Soccer found evidence of drone spying ahead of the nation’s opening match against New Zealand.

Reports of drones flying over New Zealand’s practice on Monday and last Friday ignited the cheating controversy.

Canada, who were knocked out in the Women’s World Cup in Australia in the group stage, claimed a 2-1 win over New Zealand in their opening match, but the drone scandal has threatened to destabilise their gold medal defence.

Priestman voluntarily removed herself from the New Zealand game after assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi were sent home.

Lombardi was also given a suspended eight-month prison sentence for flying the drone over the training session.

Priestman had been expected to return to her role for the nation’s second match against France on Sunday.

But Priestman was removed for the remainder of the tournament, with Canada Soccer suspending the coach.

“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 chief executive Kevin 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 until the completion of our recently announced independent external review.”

Bev Priestman has been removed from her role for the rest of the Olympics. Photo by William WEST / AFP

Assistant coach Andy Spence will lead the Canadian women’s national team for the remainder of the Paris Olympics, Canada Soccer said.

New Zealand Football said Thursday they have referred the matter to the disciplinary committee of football’s governing body FIFA seeking “urgent action”.

“There is no place for this type of action in football and it is critical that urgent action is undertaken to address this integrity breach,” New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell said in a statement.

“To hear now that the Canadian team had filmed secret footage of our team training at least twice is incredibly concerning and if not treated urgently could have wider implications for the integrity of the tournament.”

FIFA has since opened disciplinary proceedings against Canada.

But it may also have wider implications outside the tournament with claims emerging that Canada have “engaged for years in efforts to film” their opposition.

TSN senior correspondent Rick Westhead reported “two sources with first-hand knowledge of the activity told TSN”.

He goes on to claim that the filming included “at least one” training session before a match against Panama in July 2022.

The report added that “staff and contractors connected to the men’s national team have also filmed the closed training sessions of competitors”, as well as claiming “some staff and contractors were told the filming was part of their jobs”.

Canada celebrating winning the Olympic gold in Tokyo. Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images

Former Canadian star Amy Walsh termed the act as “cheating”.

“This is awful, the worst-case scenario,” the 102-cap veteran, who now hosts a football podcast Footy Prime said.

“I feel sick to my stomach, genuinely nauseated. I understand when you get to a high level, people will be ruthless and do whatever they can to gain a competitive advantage but this is so far over the line.

“The players are benefiting from the coaches cheating. There’s a certain amount of blind trust players have that coaches are doing things the right way and this is the ultimate betrayal.”

There has been no suggestion of wrongdoing by the players, with Canadian defender Vanessa Gilles insisting her team were “not cheats”

“Honestly, it wasn’t easy,” Gilles told reporters.

“There was a lot of emotion, frustration and humiliation because as a player, it doesn’t reflect our values and what we want to represent as competitors at the Olympics.

“The Games represent fair play. As Canadians, these are not our values or those of our country. We are not cheats. It was very hard but we knew how to be united.

“It’s up to us to stay together and try not to let social media and the press break into our bubble. We’ve been able to do that in the past.”

With AFP

Originally published as Canadian football coach Bev Priestman removed over Olympic cheating scandal