The Canadian government has ruled on the recent scandal involving the National Women’s Soccer team using drones to spy on opponents.
FIFA has already given the Canadian Olympic team a six-point penalty and suspended the three key figures in the matter, including head coach Bev Priestman, for a year. The Canadian team was also hit with a hefty $313,556.40 (CAD) fine.
Team officials Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander were the other two people who got suspended.
Now, the Canadian government has announced the penalties it will impose on the team for the scandal, including withholding funding to the three officials involved.
“Using a drone to surveil another team during a closed practice is cheating,” Carla Carltrough, Canada’s sports minister, said in a statement. “It is completely unfair to Canadian players and to opposing teams. It undermines the integrity of the game itself.
“Given that the Women’s Program receives funding from Sport Canada, we are withholding funding relating to suspended Canada Soccer officials for the duration of their FIFA sanction.”
BREAKING
The Government of Canada withholding funding relating to the suspended Canada Soccer officials for the duration of their FIFA sanction
Here is the full statement from Canadian sport minister Carla Carltrough: pic.twitter.com/ry9tftQaKU
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 28, 2024
The scandal has cast a massive shadow on the Olympic Women’s team, who were expected to be among the top teams at this year’s tournament as the defending gold medalists. The six-point deduction has already put them behind the curve, and they will most likely need to sweep round-robin play to have a chance to advance to the knockout rounds.
It will be a feat that the team will have to accomplish without their head coach.
Carltrough acknowledged that the players have been put in a precarious situation on the international stage through no fault of their own.
“The issue has caused significant distraction and embarrassment for Team Canada and all Canadians here in Paris and at home,” Carltrough said. “It is deeply regrettable.”
The team was able to shoulder the burden in their opening game of the tournament, defeating New Zealand by a score of 2-1 on Thursday. This earned them three points, but the FIFA sanctions have them sitting at zero in the current standings.
Canada will continue to try to dig themselves out of this hole later today as they take on the host nation France at 3 pm ET/noon PT.