Canada’s women’s soccer team has insisted they had “nothing” to do with the team’s drone spying during the Olympic Games.
The scandal, which saw three staff members including head coach Bev Priestman sent home from the Olympics, also resulted in the reigning gold medallists being stripped of six points before their second match against France.
However, Canada scored impressively in injury time in the second half to beat the home side and keep their hopes alive, but afterwards they firmly rejected the claim that they had cheated.
“We had no control over anything for 72 hours,” Vanessa Gilles, who scored the winning goal, said via ESPN.
“We are not part of this and we are being punished as if we were caught doping. We did nothing. We are just so tired of defending ourselves over something we have no control over.
Canada, which was deducted six points for the scandal, kept its Olympic hopes alive with a final-minute victory over France
Suspended head coach Bev Priestman apologized to her players in a statement on Sunday
“We don’t have an advantage,” Giles continued. “We go all out, we play our hearts out, we work at this all year round, day in, day out. So it’s just the uncontrollable things that are the biggest anger and the biggest frustration.”
Before Canada’s opening match at the Olympics against New Zealand, it was revealed that the team had used drones to spy on their opponents. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander, ‘unaccredited’ analyst Joseph Lombardi and head coach Priestman were all eventually sent home.
The three were each banned from all football-related activities for one year by FIFA.
In addition to these Olympic Games, questions have been raised about Canada’s gold medal in Tokyo, with TSN reporting that the Canadian men’s and women’s teams have tried to film their opponents’ training sessions “for years” – including in Tokyo in 2021.
However, Priestman, who apologized to her players on Sunday, was adamant that espionage played no role in the team’s victory in Tokyo.
Canada’s Vanessa Gilles said the players are “tired of defending ourselves” over the scandal
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Giles added on Sunday that she had “never felt so many emotions leading up to a game,” while her teammate Kailen Sheridan added that “there’s so much negativity directed at us.”
“We feel like we have nothing to do with all of the things that have happened,” Sheridan said. “We are under attack right now. We are the dartboard. Unfortunately, we had to take that. That we had to take that. To come together and really shut the world out was a very difficult decision.”
The players’ denial of their involvement in drone spying was echoed by Canada’s national soccer CEO, Kevin Blue, who said at a news conference Friday that players at the Paris Olympics had not seen drone footage of Lombardi.
A man matching Lombardi’s description was arrested by French authorities last week after a drone was discovered flying over the New Zealand practice.
However, Canada now has a chance to advance despite the points deduction after beating both New Zealand and France.
On Wednesday they play against Colombia and have the chance to advance.