Canada soccer coach Bev Preistman removed from Olympics amid drone spying scandal

July 26 (UPI) -- Canada removed Bev Priestman as its women's soccer coach for Paris 2024 after members of her support staff were caught using drones to spy on opponents during practices, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced Friday.

Assistant Andy Spence was named interim coach and will lead the Canadians for the remainder of Paris 2024. Priestman, 38, led Canada to a gold medal at Tokyo 2020.

"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 said in a news release.

"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."

On Tuesday, the New Zealand Olympic Committee announced that a drone was seen flying over their women's soccer team's training session Monday in Saint-Etienne. New Zealand Football reported the incident to French police, who went on to detain a member of Canada's support staff.

The New Zealand Olympic Committee also filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee and asked Canada to review the matter.

"The New Zealand Olympic Committee and New Zealand Football are committed to upholding the integrity and fairness of the Olympic Games and are deeply shocked and disappointed by this incident, which occurred just three days before the sides are due to face each other in their opening game of Paris 2024," the New Zealand Olympic Committee said.

"At this time the New Zealand Olympic Committee's main priority is to support the New Zealand women's football athletes and wider team as they start their campaign."

The Canadian Olympic Committee issued an apology to New Zealand and addressed the matter Wednesday with multiple statements.

"The Canadian Olympic Committee stands for fair-play and we are shocked and disappointed," the Canadian Olympic Committee said. "We offer our heartfelt apologies to New Zealand Football, to all the players affected, and to the New Zealand Olympic Committee."

The committee released another statement stating that it learned about a second drone incident at a July 19 New Zealand practice. The committee announced that it removed analyst Joseph Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander from the Olympic team, while accepting a decision from Priestman to step down from coaching the Canada women during their match Thursday against New Zealand.

"On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada," Priestman said at the time. "This does not represent the values that our team stands for.

"I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program. 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."

TSN reported about the scandal Thursday, citing sources that said members of the coaching staff and others working for the Canada men's and women's national teams have been "engaged for years" in efforts to film opponent training sessions.

That report stated that the practice included efforts made during Tokyo 2020, when the Canada women's team won gold. Canada also beat the United States Women's National Team in the semifinals of the Tokyo 2020 tournament before beating Sweden in the gold medal match.

Canada beat New Zealand 2-1 in a Group A opener Thursday in St. Etienne. The Canadians will face host France in their second match at 3 p.m. EDT Saturday in Saint-Etienne.