Following the Canadian women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman’s removal from the Canadian Olympic team Due to the use of a drone by its employees to spy on opponents, Kevin Blue, CEO and general secretary of Canada Soccer, has revealed that this spying was also attempted by the men’s team at the Copa America. Blue confirmed that Canadian men’s soccer coach Jesse Marsch became aware of the attempted drone use during the tournament after the fact, but doesn’t believe it helped the team win games. The Canucks were the surprise of the tournament, making it through the group stage and eventually finishing in fourth place.
Blue believes this was a different use of drones than the Olympics, but that the Copa America “did not jeopardize the potential impact on the competitive integrity of a game.” Blue says Marsch only found out about it after the fact, which is why he believes the drone use had no impact on the results. Blue doesn’t believe players should be punished for this, but it’s also clear this was a systemic problem for Canada Soccer.
“I now declare that the team has not seen any of this footage and the players have committed no wrongdoing.” Blue said.
“I am aware of a case of attempted drone use during the Copa America. My current understanding is that the factual pattern of this incident is significantly different from what occurred here, particularly in relation to the potential impact on competitive integrity. But we’re conducting a review to get a full understanding of these situations and other possible situations in particular.
TSN reported that Canada’s men’s and women’s soccer teams have been espionage for yearsincluding during Canada’s 2021 Olympic gold medal-winning campaign. The analyst at the center, Joseph Lombardi, was also an unaccredited analyst with the Canadian women’s soccer team despite already playing a role in Canadian soccer as national youth program director.
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