Canada Soccer drone spying scandal

In July 2024, staff from the Canadian Soccer Association were discovered to be using drone surveillance to spy on a training session for the New Zealand women's national football team at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Following journalistic investigation of this incident, information came to light suggesting the organization had committed systemic spying through drones for several years for both the men's and women's national teams. Formal investigations by the Canadian Soccer Association and FIFA began immediately and the latter resulted in a six point deduction for the women's national team at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

The Canada women's soccer team was drawn alongside the New Zealand women's national team in Group A of the 2024 Olympic women's soccer tournament. The two teams played each other as their first match, on 25 July at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Étienne.^[1]

Ahead of the tournament, on 22 July, New Zealand players noticed a drone flying over their training session and reported this to local police.^[2] Drone operating laws in France ban drones from being flown above people, and ban recordings made by drones to be shared without the subjects' consent. French police were already wary of drones in terms of security around the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[1][3] Saint-Étienne police followed the drone and found and detained its operator, a member of the staff of the Canadian team. The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) then reported the incident to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) integrity unit, before making a public announcement the next day together with New Zealand Football, expressing their disappointment towards the Canadian team. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) then apologized to the NZOC and said they would review next steps with Canada Soccer and all the relevant governing bodies.^[2][4]

The drone operator, analyst Joseph Lombardi, admitted after his arrest that he had also filmed another New Zealand training session on 19 July,^[5] a fact later made public by the COC.^[1][3] Though Lombardi immediately said that the spying was "a personal initiative", the police found a text message exchange on his phone with assistant coach Jasmine Mander that indicated Mander knew of the spying.^[6]

Lombardi, Mander, and later head coach Bev Priestman, were all sent home from the Olympics: Lombardi and Mander before any matches, and Priestman after having sat out the opening match against New Zealand.^[2][5][7][8] Assistant coach Andy Spence took temporary charge of the first game,^[5] before being installed as coach when Priestman was sent home.^[8] Priestman denies being part of a spying scheme.^[5] On 24 July, Lombardi was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence by the Saint-Étienne prosecutor^[1][3] under a French law that allows for suspects to enter a plea bargain with prosecutors after being held for 48 hours, if a deal is agreed by prosecutors and lawyers.^[6] The COC offered legal support to both Lombardi and Mander, as well as saying mental health support was available to the whole delegation.^[1]

The COC reported that New Zealand had asked FIFA to not award points to Canada for the 25 July match. New Zealand Football said that they had sought "urgent action" from the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.^[1] On 27 July, FIFA announced that it had deducted six points from Canada in the tournament, fined Canada Soccer 200,000 Swiss francs, and banned Priestman, Lombardi, and Mander from all soccer for one year.^[9] On 29 July, the COC appealed the decision.^[10] On 31 July, the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the appeal.^[11]

Canadian sports journalist Rick Westhead of The Sports Network (TSN) quickly began investigating further information on the incident. On the evening of 25 July in Canada – around midnight in Paris of 26 July – Westhead published an investigative report indicating that drone spying had been endemic within all of Canada Soccer for several years.^[12] Former employees speaking to Westhead claimed that there had been spying in Canada Soccer since at least 2016, when information about how to spy on other teams training was shared among staff at the CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship in Grenada.^[13]

On 26 July, David Shoemaker of the COC announced that he had become aware of information that may bring in to question the gold medal won by the Canada women's team at the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021).^[14]

According to a report from Westhead, members of the Canada men's soccer team were shown drone footage by then-head coach John Herdman in a team briefing in August 2021. The footage was of the Honduras national team training before the two teams met in the third round of CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Canada had placed first among the eight teams in the final round of qualification. Canada Soccer had also acquired exclusive use of the indoor Edmonton Soccer Dome for training during these qualifiers, and reportedly told venue staff that they did not need it but wanted to prevent the Mexico and Costa Rica teams from using it so they had to train outside and Canada could watch them. Prior to the report, Herdman had said on 26 July that during his time at Canada Soccer (as women's head coach from 2011 to 2018, and men's head coach from 2018 to 2023) there was no spying at an Olympics or a World Cup.^[13]

Relating to the 2024 Olympics incident, FIFA began investigating Priestman and Canada Soccer as well as "all potentially involved parties" on 24 July. Canada Soccer also opened their own investigation on the same day, which they said would also "seek to understand the historical culture of competitive ethics within all of our programs".^[1][6] Canada Soccer and the COC confirmed on 26 July that there had been a history of spying within their teams, and that they would have an independent external review.^[8] Priestman was suspended until Canada Soccer's external investigation was complete, after which she was officially fired (along with Jasmine Mander and Joseph Lombardi).^[15][16]