Canada Women’s Soccer Team gets hefty fines for Spying scandal

Following the spying incident, Fifa has banned Bev Priestman, the head manager of the Canadian women's football team, and another two officials for a year. A day before their match in Paris on July 22, reports surfaced that analyst Joseph Lombardi as well as assistant manager Jasmine Mander had secretly recorded their opponents' coaching sessions using drones. For this reason, they were also suspended.

In the Olympic football competition, Canada has lost six points in Group A and the association has been penalised 200,000 Swiss francs (£175,000). Canada is still in the competition despite losing points. It can imply that in order to move with three points, the team needs to win its final two Group A games. They opened the tournament by defeating New Zealand 2-1. They will play France, the top team in the group, on Sunday in Saint-Étienne, and Colombia on Thursday in Nice.

After taking over as head coach in November 2020, Priestman, 38, of County Durham, England, guided Canada to the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, defeating Sweden during the gold medal match. Her contract runs through the Women's World Cup of 2027.

Canada women’s soccer team get minus six points for spy scandal

FIFA, the world governing body of women's soccer, announced on Saturday that Canada had lost six points in its Olympic competition and that manager Bev Priestman would be suspended for a year. This came after a drone espionage controversy marred Canada's gold medal defense. New Zealand lodged a complaint alleging that drones operated by Canadian employees flew above their training sessions prior to Canada's opening Olympic match, a 2-1 victory.

FIFA's ruling means that the defending Olympic champions, with two games remaining, will now be down three points in Group A and will have a steep hill to climb in order to advance past the group stage. There is still a chance to appeal the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.