A sports arbitration court on Wednesday dismissed Canada‘s appeal of a six-point penalty against its Olympic women’s soccer team in the wake of a drone spying scandal.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its panel of three arbitrators rejected the appeal by Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer following a closed-door hearing on Tuesday.
Arbitrators said they would publish the grounds for their decision at a later date due to the urgency of the decision, in a statement that came less than eight hours before the Canadians are set to face Colombia at the Paris Olympics.
The COC and Canada Soccer issued a joint statement thanking the court for its quick work.
“While disappointed in the outcome of our appeal, we commend the players for their incredible resilience and grit over the course of this tournament, and look forward to cheering them on in today’s match against Colombia,” they wrote.
Governing body FIFA docked six points from the women’s team after a Canadian staffer was caught using a drone to spy on New Zealand team practices before the start of competition at the Paris Games.
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The COC and Soccer Canada had asked the arbitration court to cancel or reduce the points deduction, arguing it was disproportionate and unfairly punished the players when there is no suggestion they were involved.
Canada Soccer was also fined more than $300,000 and three team members — including head coach Bev Priestman — were suspended for one year.
The decision means the defending Olympic champions remained in a must-win situation against Colombia if they want to reach the knockout stage of the Olympic tournament.
Canada is aiming to reach the medal podium for a fourth straight time after winning bronze in 2012 and 2016 before taking gold three years ago in Tokyo.
The squad has fought through the distractions over the last week to earn a pair of 2-1 comeback wins over New Zealand and France. However, the team remains without a point in the standings due to the six-point deduction from FIFA.
Canadian defender Ashley Lawrence said Tuesday that the team was keeping its focus squarely on winning the game.
“We can’t control it, we can only control getting the win,” she said. “That is our motivating factor. We want to go into the game 100 per cent to blow it out of the water and win.”
Eighth-ranked Canada has defeated No. 22 Colombia in both previous meetings, but those matches happened over a decade ago.