On Tuesday, July 23rd, news broke that an unnamed “staff member” for the Canadian Women’s National Team was caught using a camera drone to surveil a closed-door practice of the New Zealand Women’s National Team.
A day later, several more facts have come to light about this incident, but a number of key questions remain unanswered.
The Official Statements
Most of the publicly available facts come from statements released by the Olympic Committees of the respective nations.
On July 23rd, the New Zealand Olympic Committee released the following statement:
On July 22, a drone was flown over the New Zealand women’s football team training session in St Etienne.
Team support members immediately reported the incident to police, leading to the drone operator, who has been identified as a support staff member of the wider Canadian Women’s football team, to be detained.
The NZOC has formally lodged the incident with the IOC integrity unit and has asked Canada for a full review.
Team Canada has issued an apology and is investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The NZOC and New Zealand Football 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 sides are due to face each other in their opening game of Paris 2024.
At this time the NZOC’s main priority is to support the New Zealand women’s football athletes and wider team as they start their campaign.
Later that day (though, after midnight in Paris), Canada’s Olympic Committee also released a statement:
PARIS (July 24, 2024) – The Canadian Olympic Committee was made aware that a non-accredited member of the Canada Soccer support team was detained by French authorities in Saint-Étienne following a complaint by New Zealand Football on July 22nd.
The staff member is believed to have been using a drone to record the New Zealand women’s football team during practice.
The Canadian Olympic Committee stands for fair-play and we are shocked and disappointed. We offer our heartfelt apologies to New Zealand Football, to all the players affected, and to the New Zealand Olympic Committee.
We are reviewing next steps with the IOC, Paris 2024, Canada Soccer, and FIFA. We will provide an update later today (July 24th).
The COC did provide an update on July 24th:
PARIS (July 24, 2024) – Following its review of the July 22 drone incident in Saint-Étienne, and upon learning of a second drone incident at a July 19th New Zealand practice, the Canadian Olympic Committee has imposed the following sanctions and consequences:
- Joseph Lombardi, an unaccredited analyst with Canada Soccer, is being removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and will be sent home immediately.
- Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach to whom Mr. Lombardi report sent, is being removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and will be sent home immediately.
- COC has accepted the decision of Head Coach Bev Priestman to remove herself from coaching the match against New Zealand on July 25th.
- Canada Soccer staff will undergo mandatory ethics training.
The COC is in contact with the IOC and in contact with FIFA. Canada Soccer has been transparent and cooperative throughout the process. The COC will continue to review this matter and may take further action if necessary.
Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team Head Coach Bev Priestman has made the following statement:
“On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada. This does not represent the values that our team stands for,” Priestman said. “I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program. Accordingly, to emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld.”
A Speedy Plea Deal
In addition to being removed from the team, according to a French-language news article published by actu.fr, the apparent operator of the drone, Joseph “Joey” Lombardi, also pleaded guilty to a “charge of maintaining an unmanned aircraft above a prohibited zone” and received a suspended sentence of eight months. The maximum punishments for this crime are “one year’s imprisonment and a €45,000 fine” (about $48,750 USD). (Note: All quotes in this paragraph are automated translations of the actu.fr article via Google Translate.)
In the previous paragraph, I used ‘apparent operator’ as the actu.fr article does not name the defendant, who is described as a 43-year-old Canadian national who is a sports analyst for the Canadian Women’s National Team. Joseph Lombardi fits that description, as his Canada Soccer profile lists his age as “43” and his birthplace as “Canada” (with a date of birth in May 1981), while his profile’s log includes him as a “performance analyst” for Canada’s WNT pre-Olympic camp.
The actu.fr article also includes a quote from the local French prosecutor in Saint-Etienne, David Charmatz, which notes that the police not only found imagery of New Zealand’s July 22nd practice, but also an earlier practice on July 20th. (Note: The second COC statement lists the date as the July 19th.)
Additional Fallout
Also removed from the staff of Canada’s WNT was Jasmine Mander (Canada Soccer profile), who was an “assistant coach”. Her involvement in the spying incidents is unclear, although according to the second COC statement, it appears that she was Lombardi’s direct superior. (NationalPost.com article) Notably, Jasmine Mander has a brother who is currently on the staff of New Zealand’s WNT as a physiotherapist. (TheProvince.com news article, SurreyNowLeader.com news article)
Meanwhile, Canada’s head coach, Bev Priestman has, according to the COC’s second statement, voluntarily “remove[d] herself from coaching the match against New Zealand”. So, she will not be on the sidelines for that match, but she will certainly continue to be involved in all of the preparations for that match.
Perhaps, This Wasn’t The First Time?
As the July 24th AP article on this scandal (written by veteran sports journalist Anne M. Peterson) notes, there was a incident in Canada, back in 2021, where before a men’s World Cup qualifier, the Honduras men’s national team stopped practice when they noticed a drone flying overhead (AP article from 2021).
The operator(s) of that drone were never identified, so the 2021 incident remains a curiosity. Additionally, according to his Canada Soccer profile, Lombardi last worked with the Canada’s MNT in 2019, so there’s no significant circumstantial evidence connecting the 2021 event and this current one.
What Intel Could Be Gleaned From Drone Videos?
During practices, teams typically do drills and practice set piece (free kick and corner kick routines), as well as do scrimmages, et cetera.
If a player is injured or recovering from an injury, depending on the publicly available information, video of that player practicing could be useful in determining (1) how likely they play in a match, (2) whether they could start or and/or be used as a substitute, (3) how many minutes they could play, et cetera.
Relatedly, if a player is injured during the a practice, having video of the injury occurring would be very valuable, especially if the player is a regular starter.
Video of full team scrimmages could be used to identify formation changes and potentially even who the starters could be for a match.
Set piece routines are often highly planned and practiced, so acquiring video of corner kick and free kick routines would be very useful in developing defense plans for such events.
If penalty kicks are practiced, the drone video could have captured who the kick-takers are as well as their placement (e.g., left or right of the goalkeeper, also whether the shot was on the ground or in the air, et cetera).
Where is the International Olympics Committee?
In France, at the moment, obviously. But, officially, it has been radio silence from them. The IOC’s news page (olympics.com/ioc/news) has, as of this article’s publication, no statements or press releases regarding the drone spying incidents.
Likewise, there has been no official response from FIFA.
It is possible that there may be some sort of punishment, perhaps announced before the kick-off of the Canada – New Zealand match on Thursday, July 25th. But, at this time, I’m not expecting anything to be announced or any significant punishment, for that matter.
Thoughts On A Proper Punishment…
My personal opinion is that the proper punishment would probably be for FIFA to force Canada to forfeit their match against New Zealand, which would result in an automatic 3-nil win for New Zealand.
For FIFA, the operative enforcement mechanism for this situation looks to be the FIFA Disciplinary Code (last updated in 2023, PDF document). Punishments available for national associations include “forfeit” of a match as well as “annulment of the result of a match” (page 8), so a retroactive forfeit could still be on the table.
Given that the drone spying against New Zealand also occurred during an earlier practice (either July 20th or July 19th, reports vary), at least two days before Lombardi was detained, it is highly likely that he shared his knowledge with other members of Canada’s staff, so using a “fruit of the poisonous tree” analogy (Wikipedia), there is a good argument that Canada has improperly benefited from the illegally acquired intel.
Another improper benefit for Canada is that the drone spying incident puts New Zealand at a disadvantage, as New Zealand would have to assume that any set routines that they practiced while being spied upon are compromised and no longer secret. This means that New Zealand would likely use different routines and/or be second-guessing themselves as they take the set pieces: In both cases, this could lead to reduced likelihoods of converting on those set pieces.
An additional reason for forcing a forfeit is to show that this kind of cheating has no place in organized soccer, especially at the international level.
If there was evidence of additionally spying against at least one of the other teams in Canada’s group (France or Colombia), then I would be in favor of forcing Canada to forfeit all of their group matches.
One wrinkle concerning the forfeit punishment is that as this is a 12-team tournament, with the top two third-place teams advancing along with the top two teams from each group, the forfeits could, compared to what would have happened in the absence of any punishment, negatively affect the chances of the third-place teams in the other two groups. In most cases, New Zealand would be lucky to get a draw against Canada, so a forfeit, with a 3-nil scoreline, would be significantly advantageous for New Zealand.
Additional wrinkles involving a forfeit, if the match result is later annulled, is that any yellow and red card cautions are not rescinded, which could affect Fair Play point tie-breaker scenarios. (See page 23 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code) It could also mean New Zealand might have a player suspended for a future match, whether due to yellow card accumulation or a red card, who would not have been suspended had the match been proactively declared a forfeit.
As to individual punishments for Joseph Lombardi, Jasmine Mander, Bev Priestman, and other potential staff members of Canada’s WNT, except for Lombardi, the specific facts are still unclear. I do expect Lombardi to face FIFA disciplinary sanctions, which would likely include a monetary fine and a suspension from soccer-related activities.
Unanswered Questions
- When did Bev Priestman first become aware of the drone spying?
- If Priestman had advanced knowledge, how involved was she in the drone spying?
- In addition to Joseph Lombardi and apparently Jasmine Mander, were any other Canada WNT staff members involved and/or had knowledge of the drone spying?
- Will we see any punishments from FIFA and/or the IOC against Canada announced during the Olympics?
- Will FIFA at least announce the opening of disciplinary hearings against Joseph Lombardi, Canada Soccer, and any other persons or entities involved in the drone spying?
- How will the players of Canada’s WNT respond? (There has been no published statements by their player association.*)
- And, finally, why spy on New Zealand? It’s not like they’re a top-tier team that has consistently troubled Canada.
*Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/canadiansoccerplayers/
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