PARIS – Two Canadian women’s soccer team staff members have been sent home amid allegations of spying on the eve of the 2024 Olympics, while the head coach will not be at the helm for the tournament opener as Canada wobbles into defence of its title.
The international drama stems from claims of drone use at two New Zealand team practices — Canada’s first opponent of the group stage.
Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander are the two staff members at the centre of the story, with both having been officially removed from the team on Wednesday.
How did we get here?
In an initial statement released early Wednesday morning in France, the Canadian Olympic Committee acknowledged it knew a “non-accredited member” of the women’s team had been detained by French authorities following a complaint from the New Zealand team on Monday.
In a subsequent statement, the COC identified Lombardi as an “unaccredited analyst” with Canada Soccer. It appears Lombardi was the person detained by French police and accused of being behind the drone incidents, which includes another at an earlier practice on July 19.
The 43-year-old is a long-time technical coach who earned his Canada Soccer Coaching A Diploma in 2009 and continued to advance through the system. According to his Canada Soccer bio, Lombardi served on the team staff at the most recent FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023.
Prior to that, he was a member of the Canadian staff at six FIFA youth tournaments from 2012 through 2022.
Federations competing in the Olympics have limits on the number of staff members who receive official accreditation and access.
According to a COC statement, Mander is the assistant coach to whom Lombardi reported. Both were officially removed from the team and sent home immediately.
Mander, a 29-year-old from Richmond, B.C., is said to be an important voice on head coach Bev Priestman’s staff. She was an assistant on the 2021 gold medal-winning team in Tokyo.
A former kinesiology student at the University of British Columbia, Mander began her coaching career as a teenager, attending a FIFA regional coaching workshop in Canada in 2014. She quickly advanced through the domestic coaching system.
Authorities in Paris have instituted a ban on drones flying in airspace both around the city and in venues across the country — restrictions authorities said would be strictly enforced during the Olympics.
And that is how, suddenly, Canada is in the spotlight.
According to a statement from the New Zealand Olympic Committee, the drone was seen overhead at practice on Monday: “Team support members immediately reported the incident to police, leading to the drone operator, who has been identified as a support staff member of the wider Canadian Women’s football team, to be detained.”
The incident — and the swift fallout — casts questions on the Canadian team’s integrity.
Priestman removed herself from coaching Thursday’s match against New Zealand.
It is not clear whether she will face any outside discipline.
“I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program,” Priestman said in a statement released by the COC on Wednesday. “Accordingly, to emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interest of both teams in mind.”