Spying in sports -- the difference between winning and losing?

By Brashna Kasi

Canada Women’s Soccer continues to be in hot waters for spying on its opponents using drones at the ongoing Paris Olympics after new evidence emerged suggesting they spied on other teams routinely.

It turns out the drone-flying incident against New Zealand was not Canada’s first time snooping up on their rivals. Evidence released by FIFA, who is investigating the matter, shows that the practice was rather common, for both men and women’s soccer teams.

Habitual offenders

An email found in documents released by FIFA on Sunday showed that head coach Bev Priestman encouraged spying by saying it is something the team analysts “has always done” and that there is a “whole operation” on the men’s side with regards to it.

“As for scouting it can be the difference between winning and losing and all top 10 teams do it,” the email read. Priestman has been the head coach for the last four years and was part of the team that won the gold in Tokyo Olympics 2020.

The defending champions had faced a six-point penalty by governing body FIFA for breaching its regulations by spying on New Zealand during practice ahead of its opening Olympics game last week.

Heavy penalty

The authorities imposed a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs and placed a one-year ban on Priestman, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and performance analyst Joseph Lombardi, who was behind flying the spying drone.

Canada Olympics Committee (COC) and Canada Soccer had filed an appeal to reverse the penalty imposed on the team saying the sanctions “unfairly punishes the athletes” for actions they had no part in.

Kevin Blue, CEO of Canada Soccer, said that while swift action was taken against the implicated staff members, athletes should not be unnecessarily punished. “It is excessively punitive towards our Women’s National Team players – who were not involved in any unethical behavior,” he said in a statement released on Saturday.

Appeal rejected

Canada’s appeal was dismissed by authorities at the Court of Arbitration for Sports on Wednesday. The urgent verdict was devastating for the team that was on zero points despite winning its first two matches against New Zealand and France.

"While disappointed in the outcome of our appeal, we commend the players for their incredible resilience and grit over the course of this tournament,” the COC and Canada Soccer said in a joint statement.

Canada stay alive despite huge punishment

Despite being put in a do-or-die situation and becoming the focal point of continuous off-field drama, Canada’s women’s team seems to be doing great on-field. They won all three games and have qualified for the quarter-finals at the Olympics after beating Colombia 1-0 on Wednesday.

“Chances were stacked against us, but we pulled through, we stayed together through it all and we have seen results of that,” Vanessa Giles said after the game. The centre-back scored the match-winning goal for her team in the 62nd minute to help them qualify for the next round.

"We still believe the sanction was unfair, unjust and unprecedented," she added.

Government authorities in Paris have instituted a ban on flying drones in airspace around the city during the Olympics. While the incident casts a question on the Candian team’s integrity, it's the first time a team has been punished with a six-point penalty for an in-tournament violation of FIFA rules.