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Canada fired its women's soccer coach on Friday, Bev Priestmanfrom the remainder of the Paris Olympics after new evidence of drone spying on a rival team was discovered.

The decision by the North American team, the current Olympic champions, comes a day after team assistant Jasmine Mander and analyst Joey Lombardi were sent back to the country for using a drone to film a training session in New Zealand, one of their rivals in the group stage of the Games.

Lombardi was arrested by French police and given an eight-month suspended prison sentence in a case that will be investigated by FIFA.

“Over the past 24 hours, we have received additional information regarding the use of drones against opponents ahead of the Games,” said Kevin Blue, executive director of the Canadian Soccer Federation (Canada Soccer).

“In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the decision to suspend Canada Women's National Soccer Team Coach Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and until the completion of our recently announced independent external review,” Blue announced.

The Canadian team, defending the gold medal won at the last Tokyo 2020 Games, beat New Zealand 2-1 on Thursday in its debut in the Olympic football tournament, which began just days before the opening ceremony on Friday.

Because of the controversy, Priestman was not on the bench for Canada's debut, but he was expected to return Sunday for the second match against France in Group A, which also includes Colombia.

His assistant Andy Spence will lead the team for the remainder of the Games, Canada Soccer reported.

Courtesy of: AFP

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