U.S. Soccer knew about Canada Soccer spying attempts as 2024 Olympics scandal continues to unfold, per report

John Herdman, the former head coach of both the Canada men's and women's national soccer teams, is becoming a central figure in a brewing scandal over Canada Soccer's attempts to spy on opponents that was uncovered shortly before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris.

News broke on Wednesday that Canada's women's national team sent a drone over New Zealand's training sessions on multiple occasions before the teams' opening game of the competition on Thursday, which Canada won 2-1. FIFA have since docked Canada six points, banned head coach Bev Preistman and assistant coaches Jasmine Mander and Joseph Lombardi for a year and fined the Canadian Soccer Association $226,000 for that specific incident. Since the initial story broke, though, several reports have emerged that spying has been a years-long habit for both Canada's men's and women's national teams.

ESPN reported on Saturday that the U.S. Soccer Federation was aware of Canada's attempts to spy on them, including in January 2021 when both countries' men's teams were training at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Instead of sending a drone on that occasion, a Canada Soccer staff member pretended to be on the IMG Academy's payroll while watching a U.S. training session before a security guard verified his employment and told him to exit the practice.

U.S. Soccer did not report Canada at the time, according to ESPN, because of the federations' relationship in wanting to co-host the 2026 World Cup alongside Mexico.

ESPN also identified Herdman as a "common denominator" in both teams' attempts to spy on opposition, despite himself publicly and privately acting paranoid that other teams were spying on his squad. Herdman, now the head coach of MLS side Toronto FC, said in a press conference Friday that he did not spy on opponents at World Cups or at the Olympics, but would cooperate with any investigation. The ESPN report says officials at U.S. Soccer, though, expect Herdman to be implicated in the scandal.

While FIFA has issued a punishment strictly for the incident involving New Zealand at the Paris Games, investigations into an alleged habit of spying are ongoing. Reports suggest that Canada's teams have attempted to spy on the opposition as long ago as 2019 and as recently as the Copa America, where the men's team finished in fourth place this month.

Most significantly, reports indicate that staff spied on opposition during Canada's women's team's run to the gold medal at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Players have denied seeing drone footage during that tournament.