Edimário Duplat

Before its debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, women’s football becomes the scene of a scandal. Caught spying using a drone on the New Zealand team, its opponent at the start of the competition, the Canadian team saw its coach dismissed and two professionals from the technical staff dismissed.

According to information from the Canadian Olympic Committee itself, analyst Joseph Lombardi – drone operator – was sent back to his country. Along with her, assistant Jasmine Mander was also removed from the cast. Additionally, coach Bev Priestman will not lead the team in the tournament debut. FIFA has now opened disciplinary proceedings to investigate this matter:

“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has opened proceedings against Canada Soccer, Ms. Beverly Priestman, Mr. Joseph Lombardi and Ms. Jasmine Mander due to a potential violation of Article 13 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and the Article 6.1 of the FIFA Olympic Football Disciplinary Regulations. Tournaments Games of the XXXIII Olympiad Paris 2024 – Final competition, following incidents involving an unaccredited member of the Canadian delegation to the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament who allegedly used a drone to record the New Zealand women’s national football team . will be submitted to the disciplinary committee for examination in the coming days,” said the press release from football’s highest governing body.

In an official statement, the Canadian coach said that she herself had decided to step down from command of the team in the next match, as she was the “ultimate person in charge” of the Canadian team. “I am ultimately responsible for the leadership of our team. To underscore the team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily step aside from managing Thursday’s game.

Canada, current Olympic champion, makes its debut this Thursday (7/25) against New Zealand in Saint-Etienne in Group A of the tournament.

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