By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Canadian women’s national soccer team head coach Bev Priestman was slapped with a one-year ban following their spying scandal in the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics.
Global governing body FIFA announced the major development, elaborating that Priestman will not be allowed to participate in any soccer-related activities until the ban has been lifted.
According to FIFA, Priestman’s ban was because of “offensive behavior and violation of the principles of fair play”.
Priestman was key to Canada’s gold medal campaign during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after mentoring the squad and will no longer have the chance to clinch back-to-back championships this edition when she was removed as the team’s chief tactician days before the tournament proper.
Aside from Priestman’s ban, the Canadian Soccer Association was also fined 200,000 Swiss francs (13, 218,402) pesos, as well as a six-point deduction in the ongoing Paris Olympic games.
As of now, the Canadian Soccer Association is yet to finalize its next move but the case is still open for a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Earlier this week, the Canadian women’s national soccer team was involved in a spying scandal when they flew a drone to monitor their Olympic Group A opponent New Zealand’s practice session in Saint-Etienne, France.
According to multiple reports, the French police captured the drone that was flying over the stadium perimeter and slapped one of the members with a suspended eight-month prison sentence.
After the incident, the New Zealand Olympic Committee reported what transpired to the police and filed an immediate complaint to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) integrity unit and FIFA.
“On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada. This does not represent the values that our team stands for,” Priestman said.
