In the wake of the drone spying scandal rocking Canada Soccer, its CEO and general secretary, Kevin Blue, said Friday that he had recently received new information leading him to believe that this type of behavior could be “systemic.”
“The concrete information I received yesterday made me consider the possibility that this case is much broader,” Blue said in a virtual press briefing. On that occasion, the CEO reportedly mentioned the men’s national team’s attempt to use a drone during the Copa America, which ended in mid-July, according to various media reports.
Canada Soccer has been in turmoil since the beginning of the week after it was caught using a drone to spy on New Zealand women’s team practices at the Paris Olympics. The two offenders, Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander, were respectively an “unaccredited” analyst for the Canadian women’s soccer team and an assistant coach to whom Lombardi reported. They have both been sent back to Canada. “This is completely unacceptable,” Kevin Blue reiterated Friday about their actions.
The Canadian Olympic Committee on Thursday relieved Bev Priestman of her duties as head coach of the women’s national team at the Paris Olympics after Canada Soccer suspended her. “Assistant coach Andy Spence will lead the women’s national team for the remainder of the Paris Olympics,” the committee said in a statement.
“I hope that with the decision we have taken [de suspendre Bev Priestman] “Last night and after today’s press conference, we can move forward and focus on the players in the competition, at least until the end of the Olympic Games,” Blue said.
The latter stressed that the players had not been involved in the “unethical behaviors” in question. “We ask FIFA to take this into consideration, if it considers possible sanctions,” he said.
With Agence France-Presse and Mathilde Beaulieu-Lépine