Earlier this week, a scandal erupted in which leaders of Canada’s women’s national soccer team allegedly used drones to spy on premiership opponents New Zealand.
After an internal investigation, two people were fired from the management staff and Priestman was forced to forfeit the premiership match.
Also at U16 matches
Canada’s Olympic Committee has admitted that information emerged that the women’s national team was spying with drones even before the Olympics, and Canada’s public service company TSN writes that they have sources who say that not only the women’s national team – but also the men’s national team – relied on drones and espionage for years.
This should also have happened as far down as at the U16 national team level, says a source who is said to have been one of the spies himself.
The union captain denies
TSN also has detailed information about a meeting in August 2021 when 17 players in the men’s national team got to see a video from Honduras’ closed training ahead of a World Cup qualifying match.
It must have been national team captain John Herdman who showed the film from the training. Herdman was the Canadian women’s national team captain from 2011-2018, and then the men’s national team captain from 2018-2023. He denies that he has spied on opponents – at least in the biggest tournaments.
– I am fully convinced that, when I was national team captain at the Olympics and WC, we have not been involved in these kinds of events, he says.