As an independent review is underway examining the usage of drones among the Canadian national teams, The Athletic reported Saturday that a similar incident occurred when Forge FC was practising for its Canadian Championship semifinal against Toronto FC.
According to The Athletic, a drone was seen above Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field during Forge FC’s training session ahead of the team’s match against Toronto FC on July 10.
Forge FC told Canada Soccer about potential drone usage, The Athletic said, although no official complaint was filed and it’s unclear who was operating the drone.
Forge FC won the first leg of the semifinal 2-1 with the second leg scheduled for Aug. 27.
The Canadian women’s national team came under fire in late July after a team analyst was caught using a drone during New Zealand’s training sessions at the Olympic tournament in Paris.
Canada received a six-point deduction and three coaches, including head coach Bev Priestman, were handed one-year suspensions. Despite the penalty, Canada advanced to the quarterfinals where the team lost to Germany on penalties.
Canada Soccer proceeded with an independent external review following the drone scandal and plans to release its findings publicly when complete.
According to reports from Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press and John Molinaro of TFC Republic, Canada Soccer told FIFA in an official document that John Herdman started the drone-spying strategy when he was the head coach of Canada’s women’s team.
“… We suspect that the practise of using a drone stems back to John Herdman when he was the head coach of the women’s national team,” Canada Soccer wrote to FIFA in the document, according to Molinaro and Davidson.
“In other words, this was a practise started by one person — John Herdman — and continued by Bev Priestman. It was not facilitated by the federation. New Canada Soccer administration is supporting a full independent investigation of this issue and has already taken steps to ensure that this scouting tactic does not happen again.”
Herdman coached the Canadian women from 2011-18 and led the team to two Olympic bronze medals in 2012 and 2016. He then served as the head coach for the Canadian men’s team from 2018-23 before leaving the organization to become the head coach of Toronto FC.
Priestman was an assistant coach under Herdman during his time with the women’s team.
Leave a Reply