World football governing body, FIFA has punished Canada women’s football with a deduction of six points, suspension of coach Beverly Priestman and a substantial fine over the drone incident during New Zealand training before their Paris 2024 Olympics opener.
After investigating the incident that happened on Monday during New Zealand training session in Saint-Etienne, FIFA found Canada guilty of breaching its rules and fair play regulations by flying drone over training sites.
With the six points deduction, Canada have a slim chance of defending their Olympic gold medal in the women’s football which consequntially ruled out their 2-1 win over New Zealand.
They are also without a head coach after Priestman was suspended by Canada Soccer and she has been barred from all football-related activities by FIFA for a year alongside her assistant Jasime Mander and team analyst Jasime Mander who also has an eight-month suspended prison sentence.
Canada is also mandated to pay a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs to FIFA for breaching its rules.
Canada Soccer, through its president Kevin Blue, pleaded for a lighter sanction for the team and maintained that the players did not watch any footage from drone and they were not involved in unethical behaviours.
“There was a lot of emotion, frustration and humiliation because as a player, it doesn’t reflect our values and what we want to represent as competitors at the Olympics,” defender Vanessa Gilles said.
“The Games represent fair play. As Canadians, these are not our values or those of our country. We are not cheats.”
Canada are in action on Sunday and they will face hosts France at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard for their second group game before playing Colombia on July 31.
