Canadian women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman will not oversee the team’s opening match at the Paris Olympics, while the team’s assistant coach and performance analyst were fired from the games Wednesday after a spying scandal rocked women’s soccer at the Olympics.
FIFA said it has initiated disciplinary proceedings and the Canadian Football Association said it will launch an independent investigation after the New Zealand women’s national team said its training session on Monday was disrupted by a drone flown by a member of the Canadian team competing in Group A.
The Canadian Olympic Committee announced Wednesday it had taken steps to remove two members of the women’s team’s technical staff from its Olympic squad, while Priestman will not take charge of New Zealand on Thursday.
Canada won gold in women’s soccer at the Tokyo Olympics.
“Joseph Lombardi, an unaccredited analyst with the Canadian Football Association, has been removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and will be immediately returned to the country,” the Canadian Olympic Committee said in a statement.
“Jasmine Mander, Mr. Lombardi’s assistant coach, has been removed from the Canadian Olympic team and will be sent home effective immediately.”
A French court said Lombardi had been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and had his assets confiscated.
FIFA said on Wednesday that it had “opened an investigation into the Canadian Federation, Ms Beverly Priestman, Mr Joseph Lombardi and Ms Jasmine Mander for possible violations of Article 13 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and Article 6.1 of the Olympic Football Regulations.”
“The case will be submitted to the disciplinary committee for review in the coming days,” FIFA said in a statement.
Priestman apologized for what happened and said the ultimate responsibility lies with him.
“On behalf of our entire team, I would firstly like to apologise to the players, the New Zealand Football Association officials and the Canadian players,” she said.
“This does not represent the values of our team. “I am ultimately responsible for the conduct of our program.”
She added: “As a result, and to underscore our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from Thursday’s match.”
“In a spirit of responsibility, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure that everyone feels that the sporting spirit of the game continues to be respected.”
The Canadian Football Association said it would launch an independent review that would not only examine the circumstances of what happened, but also look at the historical culture of competitive values across all of its programs.
“Canadian Soccer has always sought to prioritize integrity and fair competition, and we recognize that fair competition is the fundamental expectation of all Canadians,” Canadian Soccer Federation President Peter Ogrosso and CEO Kevin Blue said in a statement.
“We have not met those expectations in this matter and we apologize for that,” he added.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee reported what happened to the police and the IOC integrity unit.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee statement added: “The New Zealand Olympic Committee and Olympic New Zealand are committed to upholding the integrity and fairness of the Olympic Games and are deeply shocked and disappointed by this incident, which occurred just three days before the Olympic Games. two teams faced off in the opening match of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
He continued: “The New Zealand Olympic Committee’s main priority at this time is to support New Zealand’s women’s football players as they begin their tournament careers.”
