Canada soccer loses appeal in Olympics drone scandal as damning ‘spying’ email discovered

The Canadian Olympic Committee’s appeal against their women’s soccer team’s penalty for a ballooning drone scandal discovered at the start of the 2024 Paris Games was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday.

Amid the CAS’s decision to uphold FIFA’s six-point deduction against Canada, soccer’s international governing body released a background report of their reasons behind the punishment — and the findings include a series of damning emails.

After assistant coach Joseph Lombardi was caught using a drone to spy on New Zealand’s practices before their opening game, FIFA ruled for the point deduction and a fine of approximately $320,000.

Lombardi, fellow assistant Jasmine Maner and head coach Bev Priestman were also suspended for one year.

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The report details how Lombardi was caught by French police after flying the drone over New Zealand team’s practice on July 22.

Lombardi was arrested and charged with flying an unmanned aircraft in a restricted space, to which he pleaded guilty and was given an eight-month suspended sentence. Police searched his hotel room, where they found additional footage of New Zealand’s practice, which Lombardi claimed to police and FIFA he did not share with anybody due to the poor quality.

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The FIFA document also includes a telling email sent by a Canada Soccer performance analyst to Priestman in March.

“As discussed yesterday, in terms of the ‘spying’ conversation, I came off the meeting with the clarity you understood my reasons for me being unwilling to do this moving forward,” the analyst wrote, according to the report. “Morally, my own reputation within the analysis field, potentially being unable to fulfil my role on a matchday. Moving forward I will have a discussion with Joey [Lombardi] and reach out to the wider tech team with regards to how we could potentially look for other solutions. But just wanted to confirm that you will not be asking me to fulfil the role of ‘spying’ in the upcoming and future camps.”

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There was another email that Priestman sent to an external human resources consultant who works with Canada Soccer that alluded to her knowledge of “a whole operation on the men’s side.”

The six-point penalty for an in-tournament violation of FIFA rules is unprecedented, which the chairperson listed on the FIFA report believes will serve as a deterrent for future spying scandals.

After winning their first two matches of the Paris Games over New Zealand and France, Canada is set to close out group play Wednesday afternoon against Colombia in Nice. A win would advance the team to the quarterfinals.

“While disappointed in the outcome of our appeal, we commend the players for their incredible resilience and grit over the course of this tournament, and look forward to cheering them on in today’s match against Colombia,” the Canadian Olympic Committee wrote in a statement Wednesday morning.

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