CANADIAN SOCCER COACH BEV PRIESTMAN IS SENT HOME FROM PARIS OLYMPICS AMID DRONE SCANDAL AS REPORT CLAIMS THE COUNTRY'S MEN AND WOMEN'S TEAMS HAVE 'RELIED ON SPYING FOR YEARS'
- READ MORE: FIFA to investigate Canada Soccer and coach Bev Priestman
- READ MORE: Drone spying scandal erupts just days before the Paris Olympics
Another Spygate scandal could be on the horizon as the Canadian women's soccer coach Bev Priestman was sent home from the Paris Olympics amid a slew of drone spying allegations.
Canada Soccer confirmed Priestman was suspended on Thursday after 'additional information' was brought to their attention regarding 'previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.'
Assistant coach Andy Spence will replace her for the rest of the tournament after members of the team allegedly used drones to spy on rival New Zealand, who were beaten by Canada 2-1 in the first round.
The decision to send Priestman home from Paris follows a bombshell TSN report, which claims 'coaching staff and contractors working with Canada’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams have been engaged for years in efforts to film the closed-door training sessions of their opponents.'
The scandal is reminiscent of the NFL’s 2007 Spygate scandal, in which coach Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots were caught recording the rival New York Jets’ hand signals from the sideline in an attempt to gain insight into play calls.
After protracted legal battle, Belichick was fined $500,000 for his role while the Patriots paid a $250,000 penalty and were docked the team’s first-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Another high-tech spying scandal erupted in baseball over the 2017 World Champion Houston Astros.
In 2020, Major League Baseball revealed the results of an investigation that found the existence of a sign-stealing system in 2017 that allowed the Astros dugout to intercept and decipher hand signals between opposing pitchers and catchers.
As first detailed in a 2019 article in The Athletic, the organization recorded opposing catchers' hand signals with a video camera in the centerfield bleachers at Houston's Minute Maid Park. Players in the dugout would watch a live camera feed to decipher the signals and convey that information to hitters by banging a trash can. Typically one or two bangs would indicate a breaking ball to the Astros' hitters, while no bangs would indicate an incoming fastball.
That scheme resulted in suspensions for former Houston bench coach Alex Cora, who was managing the Red Sox at the time and remains in Boston today, as well as general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A. J. Hinch.
Several Astros players have apologized for their role in the scheme, such as third baseman Alex Bregman, but publicly the team continues to be tainted by the scandal, even after winning the 2022 World Series, ostensibly, without the benefit of any sign stealing.
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