The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled they will not reduce or remove Canada’s appeal of a six point penalty against the Canadian Women’s soccer team.
Soccer’s governing body imposed the penalty after a Canadian team staff member was caught using a drone to spy on New Zealand team practices on July 22nd before the start of competition at the Paris Olympics.
“While disappointed in the outcome of our appeal, we commend the players for their incredible resilience and grit over the course of this tournament, and look forward to cheering them on in today’s match against Colombia,” the Canadian Olympic Committee wrote in a statement Wednesday morning.
Reports say that Joseph Lombardi, Canadian team staff member, was arrested by French police on July 22nd and charged with flying an unmanned aircraft in a restricted area. Lombardi pleaded guilty and received an eight month suspended sentence.
After Lombardi was arrested, Police searched his hotel room and found footage that he recorded New Zealand’s practice on July 20th, as well as the 22nd. Lombardi told police and FIFA he did not share the footage with any team Canada personnel or players due to the film being poor quality.
Canada Soccer was also fined $320,000 and head coach Bev Priestman, Joseph Lombardi, and one other coach have been suspended for one year.
Canada will play Colombia this afternoon in their third and final game of the qualifying round. A Canada win would qualify them for the knockout rounds, something that seemed nearly impossible when the six point deduction was first announced.
