Canada Women’s coaches ‘directed, approved and condoned’ using drones to spy on opponents, report finds

Members of Canada Women’s coaching team were asked by senior coaching staff to fly drones over a New Zealand practice session and obtain “surreptitious film footage” before the Paris Olympics on July 20 and 22, 2024, according to an independent investigation.

The coaching staff then reviewed the footage afterwards but the players did not.

On Tuesday, Canada Soccer released a redacted summary of a months-long investigation into the use of drones by the Canadian women’s and men’s national soccer teams.

Toronto-based lawyer Sonia Regenbogen declared that, “on a balance of probabilities” women’s coaching staff were “directed”, “approved” and “condoned” to spy on Canada’s opponents at the Paris Olympics, although the footage was never shown to the players.

“The situation that occurred at the Olympic Games was highly unacceptable to everybody involved,” Canada Soccer CEO and General Secretary Kevin Blue told .

Canada Soccer said Bev Priestman, who was sent home from the Olympics and then suspended by world governing body FIFA for one year, “will not continue as women’s national team coach”. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander and the staff member who flew the drone in France, Joseph Lombardi, were also suspended from soccer for one year and will “not be returning” to the Canada setup.

“The search for a new head coach for the Women’s National Team will commence shortly,” Canada Soccer said. 

The mandate of the investigation was three-fold:

The summary report stated that, at present, the men’s national team does not engage in drone usage to spy on opponents’ practice sessions but a member of staff did use a device to record footage for a promotional video at last summer’s Copa America in the United States.

According to the report, Canada were not found to have used drones when they won Olympic gold in women’s soccer in Tokyo in 2021. However, Regenbogen reported that a drone was used to record an opponent’s practice session at a women’s tournament between June 2022 and March 2024. When objections were raised, it says in the report, it was advised it was “expected” that coaching staff would “conduct surreptitious surveillance of opponents.”

Augruso and Blue were, however, deemed not to have been aware this was going on.

The names in the report are redacted but there is a startling lack of new information uncovered about former Canada women’s and men’s head coach John Herdman’s potential role in creating what Blue called a “deeply embedded systemic culture” in July. Herdman, now head coach of Toronto FC in Major League Soccer, was not interviewed owing to what Canada Soccer called “scheduling issues” but a “disciplinary process” is underway to examine “potential violations of the Canada Soccer Code of Conduct and Ethics by the former head coach of the Men’s National Team”.

Canada Soccer also elected to keep names redacted and not publish the entire report in full.

“My personal preference would be to publish a full, unredacted report,” Blue said. “As a human resources investigation, primarily, and as an investigation in which people were given assurances about their identity not being disclosed, eventually, the decision was made to redact. It’s us delivering on our assurance to being sensitive about people’s identities in this matter, and also our deference and observation of various privacy laws related to human resources.”

has reviewed the summary report as well as additional information provided by Canada Soccer about future organizational changes and has also spoken to Blue.

Here’s what you need to know — and what happens next.

According to the summary report, a member of Canada’s women’s national team coaching staff flew a drone “over restricted airspace in Saint-Etienne, France, to surreptitiously film the practice sessions of the New Zealand Women’s National Team.” 

Crucially, the report found that drone footage was not viewed by Canadian national team players at the Olympics.

But that doesn’t mean players weren’t impacted: the team was docked six points in the group stage and yet still reached the quarterfinals, losing to Germany on penalties.

“It was a traumatic situation for everybody involved, including the players,” Blue said. “When people dream of the Olympic Games, they don’t typically dream of this type of disruption.”

According to the report, no.

“No evidence was found that surveillance was undertaken at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, likely due to the highly restrictive nature of the lockdowns related to COVID-19,” Canada Soccer stated of the report’s findings.

The summary report states that this investigation was not a full review of whether Canada’s women’s national team used drones at the 2021 Olympics, but the report was clear: no information presented in the investigation concluded drone usage occurred in Tokyo.

This should quell any questions, for now, about whether the women’s national team might lose their Olympic gold medal — one of the most celebrated team achievements in Canadian sports history.

Jesse Marsch took over as Canada men’s head coach in May 2024 and led the team to the semifinals of the Copa America in the U.S. in July.

The summary report states that, during the tournament, a drone was used at Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida —  which previously reported — by a member of Canada’s coaching staff to film a stadium for “promotional video purposes and not to surreptitiously film the practice session of an opponent.”

According to the report, Blue was made aware of this drone usage before the Olympic Games, when he was told the drone usage was indeed to film the stadium for a promotional video.

Additional notes on the summary provided by Canada Soccer state that the investigation found Marsch “clearly communicated” to his coaching staff that “drone filming for legitimate purposes such as filming the Men’s Team’s own practice sessions was only to be done where it was allowed and with permission in advance.”

A conclusion from the investigation, taken directly from the original report, states: “(Marsch) communicated that any practices that may have existed under Herdman’s leadership regarding the use of drones were not continuing under his leadership.”

This is in line with what Canada Soccer and Marsch have stated since this news first broke.

According to additional notes on the executive summary provided by Canada Soccer, there was a brief message exchange between Marsch and Priestman on July 22, 2024. Marsch expressed sympathy for Priestman’s situation and stated that “we went through it as well,” referring to the Copa America incident.

You would think that Herdman’s voice would be a key part of the investigation, but this isn’t the case.

This potentially leaves more questions than answers regarding his role in a practice of spying that appears to have been deemed culturally acceptable for years within Canada Soccer.

“(Herdman) was invited through his counsel to be interviewed for the investigation. Due to scheduling issues, the parties were not able to reach a mutually agreed time to meet,” Canada Soccer said in additional notes to the executive summary.

Toronto FC’s final game of the season was on October 5, a full month before the report was submitted to Canada Soccer.

On July 26, Herdman said: “For my side, I’ll help Canada Soccer where I can with that review. But I’m highly confident that in my time as a head coach at an Olympic Games or World Cup, we’ve never been involved in any of those activities.”

Canada Soccer said: “potential violations of the Canada Soccer Code of Conduct and Ethics by the former head coach of the Men’s National Team were identified” and that “a disciplinary process is being initiated to adjudicate these potential violations.”

When asked what this process would look like, Canada Soccer directed  to a publicly viewable document available on their website which outlines the organization’s disciplinary code.

Blue said there was no specific timeline for the process.

As well as looking for a new women’s head coach, Canada Soccer listed organizational changes under way, including:

“We will continue to scrutinize our organization for the cultural patterns that existed before, and for any evidence of these cultural patterns or ethical shortcomings continuing to exist,” Blue said.

New Zealand team staff members noticed a drone flying above their practice in Saint-Étienne, France, and notified police. Law enforcement tracked the drone back to its operator, Joseph Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst” with the Canadian women’s team.

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) then said that a separate drone incident at New Zealand training had come to light, confirming Lombardi had used a drone “to record the New Zealand women’s football team during practice.”

The COC apologized to New Zealand’s players, federation and the International Olympic Committee, saying it was “shocked and disappointed.”

Canada removed Priestman from the team after learning of drone use against opponents that predated the Summer Games.

Canada was then docked six points from the team’s Olympic group-stage total and issued a fine, while Priestman was suspended for football for a year by FIFA.

Canada appealed the points deduction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but sport’s highest court announced it had upheld the decision, just eight hours before Canada’s final Olympic group game against Colombia.

Canada still progressed from the group stage before losing on penalties to Germany.

Lawyer Regenbogen was instructed by the Board of Directors of Canada Soccer on July 30 and then shared her investigation with Canada Soccer on November 5.

On Tuesday, Canada Soccer released to the media an eight-page summary report originally given to the Chair of the Human Resources Committee of the Canada Soccer Board of Directors.

Analysis by Steph Yang

It’s hard to draw specific conclusions about Canada Soccer from this report but, broadly speaking, it does seem a contributing factor was that there wasn’t enough of a culture of transparency. There doesn’t seem to have been a culture that made employees feel confident about being able to report ethical issues, either — especially given the reported lack of response to at least one person who did object several times.

Those are very serious conclusions in their own right but, given the allegations here go through the Women’s National Team coaching staff up through Priestman and again up through her mentor Herdman, it almost feels as though the matter will never really find a satisfactory conclusion when it comes to any sense of “justice.”

Priestman has already been suspended from soccer for one year by FIFA and Herdman was not interviewed for the investigation “due to scheduling issues,” per Canada Soccer’s additional notes on the review.

Of course, in the matter of reputation, it’s a case of “a lifetime to build and a moment to lose,” but in terms of being able to neatly button up matters, that may be beyond reach — leaving only Canada Soccer’s long climb back towards earning trust.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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