(Paris) The International Football Federation has split the difference in the spying scandal involving Canada Soccer.
Yes, the Canadian players will be able to continue their Olympic adventure in Paris.
In return, FIFA imposed a penalty on them. A six-point deduction in the first round. This is not a sweet sentence. It is even more severe than the three-point deduction I was anticipating.
In concrete terms, this almost eliminates any chance of them qualifying for the quarter-finals.
For what ?
Calculator, please. In the first round, each team plays three games. A win is worth three points, a draw is worth one point, and a loss is worth nothing. A country that wins all its games can therefore score a maximum of nine points (3 x 3).
Everyone following me? Let’s continue.
The Canadians already beat New Zealand 2-1 last Thursday. Let’s be optimistic. Suppose they also beat France this Sunday and Colombia on Wednesday. A tall order – the French are third in the world. The Canadians would finish the first round with nine points. Once FIFA’s punishment is applied, they wouldn’t have many points left. Just three. The equivalent of a win. That would probably not be enough to advance to the next round.
The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) believes the decision is unfair. So much so that it is considering filing an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “We are extremely disappointed for the athletes on Canada’s women’s Olympic team, as in our understanding of the situation, they have nothing to do with this matter,” said CEO David Shoemaker.
Indeed, no one has been able to demonstrate the players’ complicity in two acts of espionage committed against the New Zealanders, nor even their knowledge of the scheme at these Paris Games. “We have not seen any drone footage,” defended defender Vanessa Gilles, emotional, on Radio-Canada. “This incident embarrasses us, but we had no control over it,” added captain Jessie Fleming. “This decision is excessively punitive for the Team Canada players, who were not involved in the alleged acts,” commented Canada Soccer President and CEO Kevin Blue.
In addition to punishing the team, FIFA fined the Canadian federation 200,000 Swiss francs ($313,000) and suspended coaches Bev Priestman, Jasmine Mandel and analyst Joseph Lombardi for one year. Unlike the players, these three people at the heart of the spying scandal did not get any kind words in the joint statement from the COC and Canada Soccer.
In fact, their names are not even mentioned.
“The officials were all found responsible for offensive behaviour and a breach of the principles of fair play. [fair-play] “due to the use of drones on behalf of the women’s team,” FIFA justified itself. The federation specified that there was “a ban on flying drones over training sites.”
Four days after the revelations, I still can’t understand how Canadian coaches could have so underestimated the consequences of getting caught. Canada, I remind you, is the reigning Olympic champion. Was it really necessary to spy on the 28e world team to hope to beat it in the preliminary round?
The obvious answer – no – would have avoided spoiling the Canadian women’s football Games.