Canadian Olympic Committee Removes CWNT Head Coach After Drone Spying Scandal

There will be no quest for gold for Bev Priestman.

The head coach of the Canadian Olympic women’s soccer team has been removed from her position after it was discovered coaching staff had used drones to spy on New Zealand’s team.

“Over the past 24 hours,” Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue began a July 25 statement, “additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

He continued, "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.” 

E! News has reached out to Priestman for comment but has not heard back.

The decision to suspend Priestman comes after an assistant coach and analyst were discovered to be spying on New Zealand’s training session with a drone, according to NBC Miami. Both the assistant coach, Jasmine Mander, and analyst, Joseph Lombardi, were let go ahead of Priestman’s suspension.

Though Priestman had removed herself from managing Canada’s game against New Zealand July 25—before her official removal by the COC—Canada ultimately won their game 2-1. According to NBC Miami, she also apologized to players and staff of New Zealand's women's team, as well as to Canadian players, before the game.

Assistant coach Andy Spence has been tapped to take over for Priestman for the duration of the Olympic season.

According to TSN, citing The Globe and Mail, analyst Lombardi was caught by French police on July 22 after they saw him retrieve a drone that had been flying over the New Zealand team’s training. The outlet reported that police found footage of a second New Zealand training session on the drone and also obtained text messages between Lombardi and assistant coach Mander which reportedly showed that Mander was aware of Lombardi’s activities.

In the light of the scandal, Canadian players are reacting to the shocking news.

“This is awful, the worst-case scenario,” Amy Walsh, a former women’s national team player for Canda told TSN. “I feel sick to my stomach, genuinely nauseated. I understand when you get to a high level, people will be ruthless and do whatever they can to gain a competitive advantage but this is so far over the line.”

She continued, “The players are benefitting from the coaches cheating. There's a certain amount of blind trust players have that coaches are doing things the right way and this is the ultimate betrayal."

(NBC News and E! News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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