Drone spying casts shadows over Canada's Olympic Games

This episode delves into the ramifications of a drone spying scandal involving the Canadian women's soccer team during the Paris 2024 Olympics.

1. A non-accredited member of Canada's soccer support team used a drone to record an opposing team's practice, leading to severe penalties from FIFA.
2. The scandal has prompted an investigation into a broader culture of competitiveness within Canadian soccer.
3. The incident has caused significant reputational damage to Canadian sports on an international stage.
4. There is no evidence that the Canadian athletes were aware of or involved in the spying.
5. This scandal has sparked broader discussions about the ethics and integrity of sports practices globally.

1: The Scandal Breaks

Robin Doolittle reveals how the drone spying incident came to light and the immediate fallout for the Canadian team. The incident involved the detention of a staff member by French police and rapid disciplinary actions. Robin Doolittle: "It was just so shocking... We'd never heard of anything like this happening before."

2: The Response and Penalties

The episode details FIFA's and the Canadian Olympic Committee's responses, including investigations and penalties imposed on the Canadian soccer team. Robin Doolittle: "FIFA has banned them for a year and fined Canada soccer over $300,000."

3: Historical Context and Precedents

Discussion on previous instances of drone usage by Canadian teams and the implications for the sport's ethical standards. Robin Doolittle: "We do know that Canadian teams have been using drones... The extent to which is still unclear."

4: Impact on Athletes and Reputation

The focus shifts to the impact on Canadian athletes and the broader perceptions of Canadian sportsmanship internationally. Robin Doolittle: "It's been really tough... trying to compete on the world stage with this."

1. Ensure Transparency: Sports organizations should maintain transparency about their training and competitive strategies to foster fair play.
2. Adopt Ethical Standards: Teams must adopt and enforce strict ethical standards to prevent similar incidents.
3. Regular Audits: Conduct regular audits of team practices to ensure compliance with ethical standards.
4. Educate Staff and Athletes: Educate all team members on the importance of ethics in sports.
5. Strengthen Penalties: Implement stringent penalties for breaches of conduct to deter unethical behaviors.

One of the biggest stories of the Paris Olympics has centred on the Canadian women’s soccer team, as the reigning gold medal winners have been embroiled in an international spying scandal. Last week, French police arrested a Canada Soccer staffer for flying a drone above opponents’ training sessions before the games began. FIFA have docked the team six points, while head coach Bev Priestman and two assistants have been suspended for a year.

The Globe’s Robyn Doolittle joins The Decibel from Paris to talk about the fallout of the scandal, how it affects government funding for Canada Soccer and the pall its cast over the Canadian Olympic story.

People

Robin Doolittle, Joseph Lombardi, Jasmine Mander, Bev Priestman

Companies

FIFA, Canadian Olympic Committee

Content Warnings:

None

Vas Bednar
Welcome to lately a new Globe and Mail podcast. I'm Vas Bednar, and every Friday I'm going to be having a conversation about big defining trends in business and technology that are reshaping our everyday find lately. Wherever you get your podcasts.

B
For the women's soccer team, they are coming off of a gold medal, historic gold medal in Tokyo. They're the defending champions.

Robin Doolittle
Globe reporter Robin Doolittle is in Paris covering the Olympics.

B
They've had some struggles in recent years, but, you know, huge metal hopes. And I think there was just so much excitement, anticipation and joy heading into Paris.

Robin Doolittle
But before the games had even begun, someone working for the canadian women's soccer team was caught using a drone to spy on another team's practice.

B
And it just immediately cast this really dark cloud over everything.

Robin Doolittle
Canada's women's soccer team plays again today, Wednesday against Colombia in whats likely to be a win or go home match.

Thats because as a result of the drone spying scandal, FIFA docked six points from the canadian womens soccer team, making it incredibly difficult to move on to the next round.

Canada appealed that decision, which is expected to be ruled on today.

So Robins on the show to walk us through what we know about the drone spying scandal, what could happen next, and the impact it's having on how Canada is seen at the Olympics.

I'm Mainica Ramon Wells and this is the decibel from the Globe and Mail.

Robin, thanks so much for chatting with me today. Bonjour from Paris.

B
From Paris in 35 degrees celsius weather right now we are roasting.

Robin Doolittle
Wow.

So before the games even began, there was this news of the scandal. Right? So just walk us through, Robin, what happened last week? We learn what, okay, so the Globe.

B
Reporters, there's a team of us, or six of us here, got here on Tuesday and on Wednesday, this is how we heard about it. The Canadian Olympic Committee put out a statement saying that they had become aware that a non accredited member of Canada soccer's support team had been detained by french police in Saint Etienne, where the women's team was practicing ahead of their first match, which was supposed to be against New Zealand on the Thursday. And it included the sentence saying the staff members is believed to have been using a drone to record the New Zealand women's team's football practice.

That was how we heard about it. Just this really shocking statement. We'd never heard of anything like this happening before. Throughout the day, the story quickly evolved. The analyst in question was identified as a man named Joseph Lombardi, and the Olympic committee said that he had been removed and would be sent home. An assistant coach on Team Canada, Jasmine Mander, was quickly removed and also sent home. And head coach Bev Priestman removed herself voluntarily from the New Zealand match. Very quickly, FIFA, the sports federation that is in charge of soccer around the world and actually also in charge of soccer here at the Olympics, it's kind of a unique situation for that sport, specifically announced it would be investigating the incident, that these three staffers were under specific investigation for potential violations of their code of conduct.

And then by the end of the day, Canada soccer also announced its own investigation. And what was really interesting, and it was an investigation not just into this specific incident, but into a wider culture of competitiveness within the sport in Canada.

Robin Doolittle
Wow. Yeah. There's a lot of things that happen really quickly then as a result of this, and we're going to talk about those implications. But let's just back up and focus on the details here a little bit. Robin. So, Joseph Lombardi, this is the first guy you mentioned he's actually arrested. Right. But Jasmine Mander, the assistant coach, is not. So what's the difference there?

B
Yeah, the information in this case came out kind of in dribs and drabs really quickly throughout the day. But the fullest picture we got was in an interview that I did and Jamie Ross, our sports editor, did with David Charmats, who was the prosecutor in Saint Etienne who handled this case. And he told us that on the Monday, the New Zealand team was practicing in St. Etienne at a closed door practice, and the team manager of New Zealand noticed a drone flying overhead. They immediately ended the practice, alerted a member of security at the stadium. I mean, this is the Olympics. Everything is very heavily policed and scrutinized for security concerns. And so there were police stationed at the stadium. Police immediately started trying to investigate this drone, and they saw the actual device kind of flying down to a man who was standing right outside the stadium. This is Joseph Lombardi. And they saw him receive the drone, and theyre saying, what are you doing here?

According to a french release, he identified himself as an independent contractor who had been asked to come help the canadian women's team here in Paris. He's actually a full time staff member at Canada soccer. Now, whether he misrepresented himself or something was lost in translation, what we know is he is a full time Canada soccer staff member. He presides over an elite youth women's training program in the country. But he also works as an analyst and that he had been asked by the national team to come help here in Paris. Okay. So the police have focused on him and they opened an investigation. They go to his hotel room. In his hotel room, they find additional footage and equipment that reveals that not only had the drone been used that day, it used at a previous practice a couple days earlier, also against New Zealand.

The prosecutor also told us that officials interviewed Mister Lombardi about what he was doing, and he volunteered that he was taking these videos to learn the opposing team's strategy and that what the footage showed was the players kind of executing instructions from the coaches. So this, you know, could be really potentially valuable, you know, in a game, particularly on things like corner kicks where you're running a set play. Police also discovered text messages on his phone between Mister Lombardi and Jasmine Mander, the assistant coach. And that's how she kind of got pulled into this. The text messages show the prosecutor says that she was made aware that he was going to attend the New Zealand practice. But there wasn't anything in those conversations that suggested to police that she was involved in the drone use. And he was very emphatic that she was not involved. Police did interview her and.

Yeah, and decided not to charge her. What's interesting is in France, if someone admits guilt, they're eligible for an expedited process. And so Lombardi agreed to an eight month suspended sentence, which basically means he has to follow a bunch of conditions as well as the seizure of his, you know, computer equipment, the drone, and he was allowed to leave. No other charges were laid. The prosecutor also told us that they found no evidence in Lombardi's phone that head coach Bev Priestman was involved in the spine incident against the New Zealand team. Now, interestingly, shortly after this is all breaking, the Canada soccer that released this, that's saying over the past 24 hours, quote, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. And then they continue that because of this, in these new revelations, they've made the decision to sustain, suspend Bev Priestman for the remainder of the games and until their review was done. And now ultimately, a decision has been made to suspend Mander and Priestman and Lombardi for a year.

Robin Doolittle
Okay, so this point of previous use seems like an important one. Do we know if canadian teams have used drones to cheat and spy on other teams before?

B
We do know that canadian teams have been using drones. The extent to which is still unclear and is going to be the thing that everyone is focused on for the next, I don't know, months maybe years.

Right before the official start of the Paris games, Canada soccer chief executive Kevin Blue held a press conference in which he said that he is aware of a situation involving Canada's men's team in which there was an instance of, quote, attempted drone usage during Copa America, the historic run that the canadian team had. So this is the, you know, the real question is, you know, we now know that this involves the men's and women's team at some point. So just how deep does this run in canadian soccer?

Robin Doolittle
And do we have any sense, Robin, is Canada unique here? Is this something that other countries, other teams are doing as well?

B
And that's another question that we don't have a good grasp on. Yes. Is this, you know, is this a situation where, well, this is just common in soccer and everyone does this, or is this just purely limited to Canada? It's a question that, you know, I've been asking different federations over the last several days, and I haven't got answers. Right now, the focus is on Canada.

Robin Doolittle
We'll be back in a moment.

Vas Bednar
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Robin Doolittle
So you talked about some of the penalties essentially here that we have, Robin. So these individuals involved, FIFA has banned them for a year. FIFA has also fined Canada soccer over $300,000.

B
Yeah, that is not a trivial amount for this organization. This is an organization that is in deep financial trouble. I mean, I think in 2022, they were reporting something like a $4 million deficit.

So that alone is going to be quite significant. And actually, the canadian government also came out after this all broke and said that they would be withholding some funding that they send to the organization as well. So this has been physically costing for the organization. But never mind all the reputational damage, the damage that the athletes are facing as they're trying to compete after working towards a lifetime. For this moment, it's just been a seismic event that's happened here.

Robin Doolittle
And the women's soccer team has also been deducted six points in this tournament. So this is kind of scoring for their run here, but we're actually appealing the point deduction is that right?

B
That's right. And we're actually going to have a decision very soon. FIFA's decision to penalize the team six points is huge. It's basically saying that they are in the negative before the tournament even starts to.

Robin Doolittle
And I will just clarify. So Canada is appealing the point deduction. We are not appealing the entire cheating situation that is not being appealed.

Vas Bednar
That's right.

B
We're appealing the port that it was too severe of a punishment. And this is, I think, another really important point is at this moment there is no evidence to suggest that the athletes had knowledge of this or were aware of it. And in fact, there's been a lot of outpouring of support for the athletes who are just, you know, kind of caught in the middle of this storm. They come off the pitch after a big game and, you know, unfortunately, these are the questions that they're being asked right now.

Robin Doolittle
How have they responded, Robin? Like, when they are being asked these questions, what are they, what are they saying?

B
I mean, the players, I think they're saying that they're focused on soccer, that they're exhausted, that they have nothing to do with this and that it's been really tough, you know, trying to compete on the world stage with this, but they're, they're really rallying together. Cahal Kelly, our columnist, has been traveling to the different games.

He interviewed some of the players after, you know, you have a quote saying it feels like it's us against everyone right now. Another girl said, we're not a part of this and we're getting sanctioned like we were doping.

I think that that is kind of a good representation of how they're feeling.

Robin Doolittle
Yeah.

I have to wonder, though, because this is, it sounds like a pretty serious situation to be caught cheating during the Olympics. Right. Was there any talk of not allowing Canada to continue on competing? Like, I guess, why were they still allowed to play?

B
I don't have any knowledge of the discussions that were happening within FIFA, but certainly after this broke, there was a lot of speculation in the soccer world, you know, among reporters, among spectators, you know, is the canadian team going to be allowed to continue? I think maybe what we saw here was the six point penalty is incredibly severe. Like it's putting you hugely in a hole, and that the, to outright squalify the team when there's no evidence that the players themselves were involved would unfairly punish the athletes.

Robin Doolittle
Robin, I want to bring this up because we've had lots of conversations about sports culture in Canada in the last few years. I'm thinking of course, of your reporting on Hockey Canada, those are very different situations from what we're talking about today. But I guess when we're talking about this cheating, scandalous Canada soccer, I guess, what does this say about the way that we approach sports and sports culture in Canada today?

B
I think one of the reasons that this story has become such a dominant one in the Olympics, not just in Canada, but internationally. I mean, this was the news at the Maine Press center, and being covered by journalists around the world is because it sort of was an apparent contradiction of when people think of Canada.

You know, Canadians were so polite. We are not competitive egomaniac monsters who fly drones over closed door practices at the Olympic Games, the highest stage in sport. You know, it also, it's the women's team. It's the darlings of the Tokyo Games, this amazing success story that comes at, you know, a rise of. For canadian soccer. This is, you know, this is representing a new Canada, a more diverse Canada, a more accessible Canada. It's coming at the rise of women's sport. You know, it's. It's really significant that heading into these games, the buzz was about canadian women's soccer team. Like, can they defend it? This isn't a, you know, a buzz about, oh, well, I hope the canadian men's hockey team gets gold again at the Winter Olympics. Like, this is about women. And so when all of these things are converging, it really attacks that narrative that I think a lot of people might have about Canada and about women's sport. And I think it really exposes this underbelly that maybe a lot of us were not aware of before.

Robin Doolittle
And, robin, you're in Paris. You're there. Have you seen. Has this scandal affected international perceptions of Canada and also, I guess, perceptions of other canadian athletes?

B
I don't know about other athletes, but absolutely, when people see our name, you know, you're constantly wearing a press badge around your neck at all time, and it says your country on it. And people go, like in those early days, like Canada. Oh, drones, eh? Like, it was. It really was the talk of the games. Like, it was just being covered everywhere. It came up at the, you know, in press conferences that the IOC holds each day. And, you know, it really was this huge stain that has kind of marred the entire canadian delegation that's here now. We are getting medals. Now, in some ways, the story is moving forward.

You know, you have our first gold medals and those kind of more uplifting narratives that you get in Olympic games. But the soccer story isn't going away because, one, the canadian women are continuing to fight and are still in the competition. And two, the updates keep coming from FIFA and from Soccer Canada and from the Canadian Olympic Committee. So the story just keeps evolving as well.

Robin Doolittle
Yeah. Just lastly, what happens now? Like, when will we know more going forward here?

B
I think there's short term things. There's long term things. Short term. Let's see what happens with the canadian women. Do they advance? Do they win their appeal?

And then from there, we know we have investigations from FIFA, we have investigations from Soccer Canada that is going to get at the extent of Canada's drone use, spine cheating, unethical behavior, and they're going to go backwards. And how far will this go? How many people will this involve? It's a story that is going to dominate headlines in canadian sport for a very long time.

Robin Doolittle
Robin, thank you so much for taking the time to be here today.

B
Thank you.

Robin Doolittle
That's it for today. I'm Manica Ramon Wells. Our producers are Madeline White, Rachel Levy McLaughlin and Michal Stein. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Matt Fraynor is our managing editor.

Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.