Canada spied ahead of World Cup qualifying, new report claims

A new report has added more details involving Canada’s national soccer teams using drones to spy on opponents.

It was recently revealed that the women’s team flew a drone over New Zealand’s practice multiple times while at the 2024 Olympics.

The drone operator, an uncredited member of the team, was arrested and handed an eight-month suspended prison sentence. As a result of the issue, Canada Soccer removed women’s head coach Beverly Priestman from the team.

Canada Soccer then admitted that both their men’s and women’s teams used drones to spy on teams in the past. This revelation came from a report from TSN. The Canadian news outlet pinpointed at least five previous times that the national teams flew drones over opposing facilities. Canada Soccer’s CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue also announced that drones were used by Jesse Marsch’s team at Copa America 2024.

Former Canada coach showed footage of opposing team to players before game

Nevertheless, TSN is now adding even more information on the story. They report that 17 Canada men’s national team players attended a meeting in Toronto on August 31st, 2021 with then head coach John Herdman. The coach previously managed both the men’s and women’s national teams before stepping away last summer.

Sources for the outlet claim that Herdman played a video of the Honduran national team’s practice from the day before.

The training, closed to outsiders, was spied on. In the meeting, Canada’s coach apparently used the video to show how Honduras would line up and pointed at how to break down their 4-4-2 formation.

The two teams eventually faced off in a 2022 World Cup qualifier two days later in Toronto. Both sides netted a goal from the spot to share the points on the day. Canada eventually qualified for the tournament in Qatar. However, they lost all three group stage games.

Herdman, now managing Major League Soccer side Toronto FC, fielded questions on the spying scandal on Friday. The coach was strategic in his wording when asked about drone usage. Herdman claimed that his staff did not use drones to spy on opponents while at a major tournament.

“I’m highly confident in my time as a head coach at an Olympic Games or World Cup we’ve never done any of those activities,” Herdman told reporters on Friday. The aforementioned TSN report, however, specifically pointed to a matchup prior to the 2022 World Cup.

Sources say Canada Soccer has been spying on teams for at least 8 years

Another former Canada Soccer employee also informed TSN that the national team’s have been spying on opponents since 2016. At this particular time, the women’s U16s national team were featuring at a CONCACAF competition in Grenada. While at the tournament, team staff talked about how one of the members found a secret vantage point to film practices of other teams.

Additional former Canada Soccer contractors told the outlet that they were given video cameras by coaches to record training sessions. One such instance involved spying on a team USA practice in 2017. The contractor used at the time was a college student.

If caught, the unnamed coach allegedly told the student to tell officials that they were merely a student.

The second contractor claims that they were use to record other team’s practices during the 2023 She Believes Cup. The tournament, held in Orlando, featured the USWNT, Brazil, Japan, and Canada. The Americans went on to win the competition, while Canada finished bottom of the standings.

Canada Women’s Soccer Team receives punishment

On Saturday, FIFA punished the Canada women’s national team for its involvement of staff members in using a drone to spy on New Zealand.

FIFA has given Canada an automatic deduction of six points from the team’s standing in Group A, and a fine of $226,000, as well as suspending Beverly Priestman, Joseph Lombardi, and Jasmine Mander from taking part in any soccer-related activity for one year.

Photo credits: IMAGO / PHOTOxPHOTO : IMAGO / Icon Sportswire.