Canada loses women's soccer drone spying appeal
Canada‘s appeal against their soccer team’s points deduction at the Paris Games amid a drone scandal was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the CAS said Wednesday.
The CAS said its panel of three judges dismissed Canada’s appeal and confirmed the six-point deduction imposed Saturday by FIFA.
Two assistant coaches used drones to spy on opponent New Zealand’s practices last week before their opening game.
Canada were docked six points, while coach Bev Priestman and officials Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander were banned from any soccer-related activity for one year by FIFA after New Zealand complained that Canadian staff flew drones over their training sessions before their opening match.
“The application filed by the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer in relation to the six-point deduction imposed on the Canadian women’s soccer team for the football tournament at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 has been dismissed,” CAS said in a statement.
The urgent verdict came less than eight hours before defending Olympic champion Canada plays Colombia in Nice in final round of games in Group A.
Canada stay third in the standings with zero points despite winning both their games, against New Zealand and France. Canada can still advance to the quarterfinals with a win Wednesday.
The six-point penalty for an in-tournament violation of FIFA rules is unprecedented in modern soccer.
A three-point penalty is currently applying to Ecuador in qualifying for the men’s 2026 World Cup in South America. That sanction was imposed by CAS judges and carried over from Ecuador fielding an ineligible player with falsified documents in the team’s successful qualifying program for the 2022 World Cup.
The Canada Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer issued a joint statement Wednesday, thanking the CAS for the expedited hearing.
“While disappointed in the outcome of our appeal, we commend the players for their incredible resilience and grit over the course of this tournament, and look forward to cheering them on in today’s match against Colombia,” the statement said.
On Monday, Sport Canada said it was withholding funding allocated for the salaries of Priestman and the two other suspended team officials, calling the drone scandal that has rocked the Paris Olympic soccer tournament an embarrassment to all Canadians.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
