I've watched enough crime movies in my lifetime to know that the number one rule of doing anything sketchy, nefarious, or downright illegal is to not leave a paper trail. Canada women's soccer manager Bev Priestman must not be a film buff herself, if her willingness to openly implicate herself in her coaching staff's illegal drone spying conspiracy in an email—to a human resources professional no less!—is anything to go by.
In his latest dispatch from this bizarre story, TSN's Rick Westhead reports that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has denied Canada's appeal to have its points deduction reduced at the Olympics, which leaves the women's team in the same situation it was in after its dramatic last-second win over France. CAS also upheld the $320,000 fine imposed by FIFA, as well as the yearlong suspensions for Priestman, assistant coach Jasmine Mander, and analyst/drone operator Joseph Lombardi, whose arrest on July 22 kicked off this whole scandal.
The twist in this story is that Canada Soccer, in attempting to successfully appeal the deduction, had to turn over some damning emails between Priestman and a different analyst, as well as between the manager and an "external human resources consultant." The first email, from the unnamed analyst to Priestman, was sent on March 20, and directly stated that there had been a previous conversation in which the analyst shared with Priestman their reluctance to spy in favor of the Canadian team, and asked for confirmation that Priestman would not request that they do this in the future:
As discussed yesterday, in terms of the "spying" conversation, I came off the meeting with the clarity you understood my reasons for me being unwilling to do this moving forward. Morally, my own reputation within the analysis field, potentially being unable to fulfil my role on a matchday. Moving forward I will have a discussion with Joey [Lombardi] and reach out to the wider tech team with regards to how we could potentially look for other solutions. But just wanted to confirm that you will not be asking me to fulfil the role of "spying" in the upcoming and future camps.
In response, Priestman then emailed the HR consultant about the above email, asking how best to approach an employee's reluctance to do something illegal:
Seeking your advice and input here regarding this formal email on spying. It’s something the analyst has always done and I know there is a whole operation on the men’s side with regards to it.
She went on to say that spying—she was out here blatantly calling it "spying," not even trying to hide what was happening!—is something "all top 10 teams do." She concluded by commending another member of her staff, whose performance in the "scouting" was considered "outstanding."
The Canadian federation's argument on appeal wasn't that there was no cheating, but rather that the point deduction for the admitted cheating "unfairly punishes the athletes for actions they had no part in and goes far beyond restoring fairness to the match against New Zealand," which CAS apparently did not find persuasive. The federation also said it believes the practice of spying on opponents' practices originated with former manager John Herdman, who coached Canada's women's team from 2011 to 2018 and its men's team from 2018 to 2023. Priestman was a longtime assistant to Herdman during his time in charge of the CanWNT, where she presumably learned the tricks of the trade. Rather than going over so much shaky footage of other teams' practices, Herdman and Priestman might've been better off watching more HBO.
