I have to deal with it. The Canadian Women's Soccer team's drone-powered cheating in the Olympics has left a bad taste in pretty much everyone's mouths, especially Canadians'. No-one can believe that it was Canada - Canada! - that was caught in delicto flagrante trying to pull the dirty before an Olympic match against lowly New Zealand (40 places below them in the rankings).
I can't really believe that spying on practices can be that helpful, especially in a world where many hours of video of actual games are freely available. Be that as it may, the actual guy who operated the drone, one Joseph Lombardi has spent several days in a French jail for his troubles, and has fallen on his sword and tried to take full responsibility for it himself. But it is increasingly clear that this was just part of a systemic program, and not just the "personal decision" of a lone actor.
Whatever else it might be, it's a very bad look for a Canadian team that had high hopes of repeating their Olympic gold medal performance 3 years ago in Tokyo. Indeed, it has thrown even previous performances into doubt, and the more this gets looked into the more it appears that something of this kind may have been going on for a few years, with both the women's and men's teams implicated.
There are allegations starting to surface that Canada's drone spying scheme actually started years ago, under previous coach John Herdman, and continued under Bev Priestman, and that Herdman probably carried the practice over when he went on to coach the national men's team. That said, Canadian soccer icon Christine Sinclair avers that the players were never shown any drone footage during her 23 years with the national team. But did the coaching staff have the benefit of illicit information when planning these matches?
Now, I'm sure Canada is not the only team where the coaching staff have employed such underhand tactics, whether using drones or other "spies". Revered Chelsea and Côte d'Ivoire international Didier Drogba laughed it off, saying, "It happens a few times ... it doesn't really affect the result of the game", and I have a suspicion it happens more than we think. (Now ex-)coach Bev Priestman, in a horribly embarrassing and incriminating email, says, "all top 10 teams do it". Arguably, Canada just made the mistake of being caught.
Like American football teams videoing coach signals and baseball teams stealing signs, it's maybe not exactly rife but "it happens". But Canada? Canada!
The other thing I wondered about was: is drone footage actually specifically banned/proscribed? Well, for one thing, the whole of Paris is a no-fly zone, where drones are subject to a €75,000 fine. So, there's that.
In terms of the sport itself, and the Olympics, the most pertinent document seems to be the International Olympics Committee's Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination. This does not of course spell out anything specific about drone footage or closed practices, but if a team wanted others to watch their players practice, they would not specify the practice to be closed. To disrespect a closed practice request is clearly indefensible. This seems self-evident, and I don't think anyone is trying to argue that this kind of behaviour is anything other than cheating. Would it stand up in a court of law? Who knows? But that is not really the issue here.
UPDATE
Canada appealed the crippling six-point penalty imposed by FIFA for the "offensive behaviour" involved, but the appeal was unsuccessful. They could still qualify for the knockout rounds if they beat Colombia, but it's a tall order.
UPDATE UPDATE
Tall order or no, Canada did indeed beat Colombia and managed to get to the quarter finals despite the 6 point imposed deficit. It was one of the few countries that won all three of their group matches. But, given the circumstances, they are unlikely to get full credit for their achievement (or any past achievements, for that matter).
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
And the apotheosis, at least for now: Canada lost to Germany on penalties in the quarter finals, in a game in which they outplayed Germany and could have won many times over.
End of a dream perhaps, but maybe the best possible result in some ways. They showed that they deserve to be in the top ranks of international soccer, even without cheating, but they didn't have the embarrassment of actually winning too much, which would only have inflamed bad feeling. In time, this will all blow over (I don't mean be swept under the rug - Canada, and others, will hopefully have learned a valuable lesson, but will not be defined by it).
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