In July 2024, staff from the Canadian Soccer Association were discovered to be using drone surveillance to spy on a training session for the New Zealand women's national football team at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Following journalistic investigation of this incident, information came to light suggesting the organization had committed systemic spying through drones for several years for both the men's and women's national teams.
Formal investigations by the Canadian Soccer Association and FIFA began immediately and the latter resulted in a six-point deduction for the women's national team at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
[1] Ahead of the tournament, on 22 July, New Zealand players noticed a drone flying over their training session and reported this to local police.
[2][4] The drone operator, analyst Joseph Lombardi, admitted after his arrest that he had also filmed another New Zealand training session on 19 July,[5] a fact later made public by the COC.
[13] On 26 July, David Shoemaker of the COC announced that he had become aware of information that may bring in to question the gold medal won by the Canada women's team at the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021).
[8] Priestman was suspended until Canada Soccer's external investigation was completed in November 2024, after which she was officially fired (along with Jasmine Mander and Joseph Lombardi).