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Canadian soccer coach Bev Priestman is SENT HOME from Paris Olympics amid drone scandal as report claims the country's men and women's teams have 'relied on spying for years'
Another Spygate scandal could be on the horizon as the Canadian women's soccer coach Bev Priestman was sent home from the Paris Olympics amid sensational allegations of drone spying.
Canada Soccer confirmed Priestman was suspended on Thursday after 'additional information' was brought to their attention regarding 'previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.'
Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach, and analyst Joseph Lombardi were also sent home earlier this week.
Assistant coach Andy Spence will replace Priestman for the rest of the tournament after Canadian support team members allegedly used drones to spy on rival New Zealand, who were beaten by Canada 2-1 in the Olympic opener on Thursday.
The decision to suspend Priestman just one day before the Opening Ceremony of the Games follows a bombshell TSN report, which claims 'coaching staff and contractors working with Canada's men's and women's national soccer teams have been engaged for years in efforts to film the closed-door training sessions of their opponents.'
Canadian women's soccer coach Bev Priestman was sent home from the Paris Olympics
Canada Soccer employees allegedly used drones to spy on rival New Zealand earlier this week
Multiple sources told the outlet that the team engaged in spy tactics during the women's gold-medal winning Olympic tournament in 2021.
The well-placed insiders, described as having 'direct knowledge of the activity,' also claimed filming took place before a 'women's national team game against Panama in July 2022, when Canada was attempting to qualify for the Women's World Cup in Australia.'
Some members of staff were reportedly told they could lose their jobs if they didn't follow orders related to filming rival teams.
'In a couple of scenarios, people have been pushed and have been told, "You have to give 110 percent and this is part of the job so if you don't feel comfortable with doing this, you do not have a place on the team,"' one of the sources said.
'It's not something that's talked about and it's not something there are a lot of text messages about because of how sensitive this is. Some of the people who have had to do the filming or review the filming have said to a few staff members how uncomfortable it was for them.'
FIFA's disciplinary committee previously said it opened proceedings against Canada Soccer
Priestman is one of three coaches on the team being investigated amid the scandal
It remains unclear whether any players were aware of the strategy to record their rivals' practices.
The insiders also claimed staff members connected to the men's national team have filmed the closed training sessions of their competitors, including America's practice session before a November 2019 game in Florida.
Both sources explained there were several benefits to filming an opponent’s practice session.
'You get to know their formations, their starting lineup,' one of the insiders said. 'You also look at who is taking a penalty kick and their set pieces.'
They added, 'Most people see this as cheating, which it is. Some of our coaches just see it as a competitive advantage and justify it by saying everyone does it, which is also not true. Not everyone cheats and neither should we.'
NFL fans will recall Bill Belichick 's Patriots were caught recording the rival Jets in 2007
This scandal is reminiscent of the NFL's 2007 Spygate saga, in which coach Bill Belichick's New England Patriots were caught recording the rival New York Jets' hand signals from the sideline in an attempt to gain insight into play calls.
After prolonged league and legal battles, Belichick was fined $500,000 for his role while the Patriots paid a $250,000 penalty and were docked the team's first-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Another high-tech spying scandal erupted in baseball over the 2017 World Champion Houston Astros.
In 2020, Major League Baseball revealed the results of an investigation that found the existence of a sign-stealing system in 2017 that allowed the Astros dugout to intercept and decipher hand signals between opposing pitchers and catchers.
As first detailed in a 2019 article in The Athletic, the organization recorded opposing catchers' hand signals with a video camera in the centerfield bleachers at Houston's Minute Maid Park. Players in the dugout would watch a live camera feed to decipher the signals and convey that information to hitters by banging a trash can. Typically one or two bangs would indicate a breaking ball to the Astros' hitters, while no bangs would indicate an incoming fastball.
That scheme resulted in suspensions for former Houston bench coach Alex Cora, who was managing the Red Sox at the time and remains in Boston today, as well as general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A. J. Hinch.
Several Astros players have apologized for their role in the scheme, such as third baseman Alex Bregman, but publicly the team continues to be tainted by the scandal, even after winning the 2022 World Series, ostensibly, without the benefit of any sign stealing.