Dronegate: Women’s Soccer Edition

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Canada Women’s Soccer head coach Bev Priestsman will not be on the sideline after an incident with a drone spying on opponent New Zealand!

There was spygate. Then there was deflategate. Today I’d like to talk about DRONEGATE (not the real name of it but we’re rolling with it)!

If you’ve been tuned into the stump these last few days you know the Olympics are finally here! Because of the number of teams, Soccer always begins a day or two before the Olympics officially kick off. When it comes to Men’s soccer all of the teams are sending their U23 Teams (players under the age of 23). The Women however treat it like one of the biggest competitions in the world (as they should).

Today we have the opener with Canada facing off against New Zealand. The Canadiens however will not have their head coach Bev Priestman on the sideline. This comes after she voluntarily withdrew from their opening game.

I know what you’re thinking. ‘Bev is an incredible name’. Yes, you’re absolutely right what a name. But also ‘Why would she do that?’ Let’s back up a few days here. This past Monday while New Zealand was practicing for their opening match, a drone was spotted above their practice. Turns out that it was two assistant coaches from the Canadian side that were operating the drone and gathering footage of NZ’s practice!

What a move out of the Canadiens who are supposed to be much nicer than this. Bev claims to have no knowledge of why the two coaches did this but the two were immediately sent home and banned from all team activities.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee have both opened investigations into the Canadian team.

Through all of this, Priestman believed it was the best course of action to remove herself from the game today. She made a statement apologizing to both teams, players, and coaches saying that the two individuals who recorded the footage did it on their own accord and have been relieved of their duties immediately. Whether she is fully telling the truth or not we have no clue yet, but talk aboot being stuck between a rock and a hard place. We’ll see how this all shapes up!

(The aboot was intentional. Just a little Canadian word play for you on this fine Thursday morning.)

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