Canada Soccer suspends coach Bev Priestman over drone investigation, sends her home from Paris Olympics

The Canadian women’s soccer team will have to do without head coach Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Olympic Games in Paris.

Canada Soccer announced Thursday that, following their 2-1 win over New Zealand at the start of the Games earlier in the day, Priestman had been suspended and sent home from the Olympics in the wake of their drone spying scandal. Assistant coach Andy Spence will serve as the team’s interim coach for the remainder of the Games.

While a Canada Soccer employee was caught flying a drone over New Zealand training in France earlier this week, which initially sparked the scandal, the problem has apparently been going on for some time. According to TSN, both the men’s and women’s national teams “have relied on drones and spying for years.” They even apparently used them to film closed training sessions of opponents during the women’s gold medal run at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and the following summer as they attempted to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.

Canadian soccer executive Joseph Lombardi was arrested by French police earlier this week after flying a drone multiple times over New Zealand training sessions ahead of their group stage match on Thursday. French police searched his hotel room and found drone footage of two closed training sessions, which he said “helped him learn the other team’s tactics.” Lombardi was charged with flying an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area and accepted an eight-month suspended sentence.

The incident led to multiple investigations. Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander, Lombardi’s boss, were both expelled from the Canadian delegation and sent home as punishment. Priestman handed herself a one-game suspension and was not on the sidelines for Thursday’s win over New Zealand.

“I am ultimately responsible for the execution of our program,” Priestman said in a statement earlier this week, but said she had no knowledge of the drone operation.

Priestman is now on his way home early.

Canada won the gold medal in Tokyo with a win over Sweden in the final. The U.S. women’s national team finished third after beating Australia in the bronze medal game. Canada will face France in the group stage on Sunday.