Canadian women's soccer manager Beverly Priestman was suspended for the duration of the 2024 Paris Olympics by the Canadian Olympic Committee.
The English manager previously removed herself from Thursday's Olympic opener, a 2-1 victory against New Zealand, amid allegations against the federation for repeated use of drones to spy on opponents. Priestman's status will be evaluated by external review after the Summer Games, and assistant coach Andy Spence will continue head coaching duties for the remainder of the tournament.
"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 CEO Kevin Blue wrote in a statement on Thursday.
"In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the decision to suspend Women's National 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."
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Canada's match against the Football Ferns was marred by controversy days before the two nations took the pitch in Saint-Etienne, France. New Zealand team support staff reported the presence of a drone overhead their training session on Monday to local police, who then detained a Canadian staff member, later confirmed to be Joseph Lombardi by a TSN report .
Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander were sent back to Canada following the incident, with Canada Soccer describing the arrested analyst as a "non-accredited member of the [support team]" and distancing itself from Lombardi's actions. "The Canadian Olympic Committee stands for fair play and we are shocked and disappointed," Canada Soccer said. "We offer our heartfelt apologies to New Zealand Football, to all the players affected and to the New Zealand Olympic Committee."
TSN's reporting also outlined a long-standing strategy under Priestman's management to obtain sensitive tactical information via the use of drones, including in the 2020 Olympic Gold Medal game. Canada Soccer's statement references the discovery of "previous drone use" in its statement and made the announcement shortly after the investigative piece was published.
Mirror US Sports has contacted Canada Soccer for comment on the 2020 Olympic Gold Medal game allegation.
Priestman has spent much of the past decade associated with the Canadian national team, previously managing the U-17 and U-20 squads before a brief stint as assistant coach with the Lionesses. She was appointed head coach of The Reds in 2020 and quickly achieved historic success, leading Canada to its first major international trophy at the Tokyo Olympics a year later.
Along with the 2021 Olympic Final, a penalty shootout win over Sweden, Canada was also accused of filming closed-door training sessions of Japan in that same tournament along with Panama ahead of a 2023 World Cup qualifying match.
"First of all I'd like to apologize," Priestman told CBC Olympics before stepping away from Thursday's match. "As the leader of this program, I'm ultimately accountable. Personally, It's really important to me to take this moment to show strong leadership and to represent the values of this country, the team and myself. I've done that because I really care about sportsmanship, integrity and to be honest the players who are taking the field."
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