2024 Paris Olympics: Canada's women's football team in drone espionage scandal, 6 points deducted and 3 coaches banned

FIFA has taken major action against the Canadian women's football team, caught in the drone espionage scandal. FIFA has deducted six points from the team in the Paris Olympics. Not only this, three members of the coaching staff have also been banned for one year each. They were allegedly caught using drones to spy on rival New Zealand's practice sessions ahead of the opening match on Wednesday. FIFA said in a statement that following the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and its officials Beverly Priestman, Joseph Lombardi, and Jasmine Mander, the chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee decided to refer the matter directly to the FIFA Appeals Committee under Article 56.3.

This decision was taken actually in view of the possibility that the outcome of the proceedings may affect the matches of the ongoing Women's Olympic Football Tournament - XXXIII Olympiad Paris 2024 Final Competition and also for reasons concerning the protection of the rights of the respondents. It is in light of this that the FIFA found CSA guilty of breaching Article 13 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and Article 6.1 of the XXXIII Olympiad Paris 2024 Final Competition, OFT, to mete out appropriate punishment.

As such, the standings of OFT's Group A were automatically reduced by six points for the CSA women's representative team and its fine increased by CHF 200,000. In addition, officials Beverly Priestman, Joseph Lombardi, and Jasmine Mander were suspended from participating in any football-related activity for a period of one year.

Canada won their first match against New Zealand 2-1; they are now last in Group A, with -3 points. The team can still qualify despite the deduction and meets France on Monday in their next game.