The Canadian Soccer Federation called the FIFA so that he does not punish the women's team for the drone spying scandal in Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which caused the suspension of his coach.

Bev Priestman coach of the current Olympic champion, was excluded from the Games after learning that her assistant Jasmin Mandre and the analyst Joey Lombardi they used a drone to film a training session in New Zealand, one of their group stage rivals.

Kevin Blue, executive director of the Canadian federation (Canada Soccer), defended his players by assuring that they had not seen any images recorded by drones and that they should therefore not be punished for loss of points.

The North American team beat New Zealand 2-1 in his Olympic football debut, which began a few days before this Friday's opening ceremony.

Priestman did not sit on the bench during that match and, hours later, she was relieved of her duties pending the completion of an “independent external review” initiated by the federation.

They had both already been sent back to their country Jasmin Mandre as Joey Lombardi. The analyst became arrested by the French police and sentenced to eight months in prison.

Speaking to reporters, Blue said there had been “frankly unacceptable failures” and “ethical incidents” by members of the Canadian technical team.

Without specifying how long these films have been happening, the Canada Soccer executive said internal sources suggest “this type of behavior could be systemic.”

“But the players were not involved in any unethical behavior,” Blue stressed. “And frankly, we ask FIFA to take this into account if they consider further sanctions.”

“More specifically, we do not believe that a points deduction in this tournament is fair to our players,” she stressed.

After their victorious debut in Group A, in which they will also face France and Colombia, Canadian footballers have distanced themselves from espionage.

“There was a lot of emotion, frustration and humiliation because this does not reflect our values ​​or what we want to represent as competitors in the Olympic Games,” said defender Vanessa Gilles. “The Games represent fair play. As Canadians, these are not our values ​​or those of our country. “We are not cheaters.”