• Sport

  • Anyone got a drone I can borrow?

I just uh… Want to uh… Check out the stadium seating at the training ground of my future opponents in football.

What a fucking shit storm! Not sure if this is getting as much news coverage in the UK as it is here, but considering it’s all over ESPN in the US, I can imagine it is. Canada Soccer has been caught red-handed with their pants down rogering New Zealand by flying a drone the other day. Later press inquiries against our federation have uncovered that this tactic goes back years and predates Bev Priestman’s tenure as the women’s head coach and it’s apparently systemic.

All roads point to John Herdman - who’s now the head coach for Toronto FC. He and Priestman are both from County Durham. They both kicked off their coaching careers in New Zealand and know each other well. When Herdman moved from the Canadian Women’s National Team head coach to the men’s side head coach to help us qualify for Qatar, he recommended Priestman as his replacement. The Canadian women won bronze under Herdman and gold under Priestman.

When Priestman was asked if she was aware that her assistants were filming oppenents’ practices, she promptly changed the subject. She’s now been suspended pending an investigation and sent home from Paris. Apparently a similar incident happened at COPA America without the knowledge of Jesse Marsch. Herdman has has remained more mute than a dead man during all of this.

It’s shameful behaviour and fucking downright embarrassing. It puts my pride in our recent footballing accomplishments into question - whether or not that’s warranted.

  • LT42 replied to this.

    BlainSA

    It may not be new, but getting caught at the biggest stage in world sport is about as bright as a cave 200 feet below ground.

      Think Hugo’s available if you need a drone Loopy.

      Oi oi!

      loopdokter Apparently a similar incident happened at COPA America without the knowledge of Jesse Marsch.

      Is the purpose of all this for the coach to understand how the opposition plays? In this case it was purely sexual then?

        don’t talk to me about Jesse fucking Marsch and his boosterish brand of abject defeat and conceding the same goal every game ………Bielsa, however, was famous for sending his mate with the binoculars to the Derby training ground.

          baggers44 Bielsa, however, was famous for sending his mate with the binoculars to the Derby training ground.

          A certain Latin American je ne sais quois that brash Americans could never pull off

            baggers44 so you’re not a Leeds fan I take it?! 😄

            So the drama continues… Canada head coach Bev Priestman, one of her assistants and another team staffer (who was apparently caught flying the drone) have all been sent home and banned from football for a year by FIFA. FIFA fined Canada Soccer about $330,000 and the women’s team was docked 6 points - which makes their defending their reigning gold medal unlikely. Furthermore, Canada’s minister of sport has revoked a bunch of funding to Canada Soccer and has publically stated that our federation has a long-standing “ethics problem”.

            Canada Soccer are launching an independent investigation and I’m sure more heads are about to roll. This is all very bad stuff because Canada Soccer has gone through the ringer in the national press relating to men’s and women’s pay equity and a bad business deal to an entity called Canada Soccer Business. CSB is a group controlled by the owners of the new-ish professional Canadian Premier League - which was spun up as a stipulation to Canada getting the 2026 World Cup. Previous to the CPL, Canada only had regional semi-professional leagues and the three MLS teams. That deal signed away ALL of their profit-sharing opportunities in return for a yearly lump sum payment that is a pittance of what they’d be getting now due to their recent success. Canada Soccer is so broke from that deal that when they hired Jesse Marsch, they had to dip into funds from all three Canadian MLS teams to help pay his salary. It’s gone from bad to apocalyptic.

            To top it off, former CMNWT and CMNT head coach John Herdman (who’s now thr manager at Toronto FC) - the likely culprit behind this culture of ‘cheating’ by flying drones over opponents practices - has stayed mum about his involvement. He was hammered with questions about the scandal on MLS media day on Friday, and he came back with comments along the lines of, ’I’ll happily participate in any investigation Canada Soccer has if they want me to do so. During my team with both the men’s and women’s national teams I always kept ethics to the highest of standards in how we played and practices. Until there’s an investigation from Canada Soccer, it’s inappropriate for me to comment further other since I’m no longer with the organization.'. In short, saying he won’t say shit unless he’s subpoenaed to do so.

            The sad thing is that multiple women’s players like all-time scoring leader across women’s and men’s football and GOAT, Christine Sinclair, have had to make statements saying they’ve never seen opponents’ drone footage from practices and that their efforts on the pitch were down to hard work and practice. I feel awful for the current and past women’s team players. They’re paying the price for a couple of absolute numpties when they weren’t involved in any way.

              BlainSA

              Also, for what it’s worth Canadians are culturally very sensitive to being seen as fair and not cheaters when it comes to sports. We pride ourselves on being fierce competitors, but by doing so ethically. This stems from the scandal that arose at the 1988 Olympics when Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, won the 100M race in a then record time. It soon came to light that he was using steroids and so was most of the Canadian Track & Field team. Multiple Canadian athletes and coaches were banned from track and field for life.

              A months long national commission for ethics in Canadian sport was set up where all sorts of people were called to testify. By the time it was all done, medals had been taken away, world records had been erased and Canadian track and field took decades to recover. In addition, the Canadian government set up a multi-milliion dollar anti-doping lab that was so advanced at the time, that the Olympics then apadapted their technology. A Canadian scientist from that lab was then brought on to lead the Olympic anti-doping group/lab.

              Needless to say, that whole debacle lives in the minds of Canadians who are old enough to remember it happening. We pride ourselves on being nice and polite, so this who thing with the CMWNT is dragging many ghosts out of the closet we thought had long been exercised.

                The Canadian women beat France yesterday in injury time - 2-1 despite all of the hullabaloo surrounding the drone scandal.

                The Canadian Olympic Committee has appealed the 6 point deduction at the Court of Arbitration For Sport. We’re due to play Colombia next and if we win - regardless of the points deduction or not - we’re through. If we lose against Colombia, it gets a lot dicier and we have to vie for one of the best third placed teams.

                If we win the appeal and get some of or all of our points restored, it gets a lot less complicated.

                I agree that Canada Soccer (as in the federation and not the team) and the coaches should be sanctioned and fined, but I don’t agree that the players should suffer for the decisions other people made that were entirely out of their control.

                Cheers for that Loopy.

                Why are Canadians so self-absorbed in everything Canadian? Right now they’re all shiting on about how ‘brave’ Celine Dion is to perform at the Olympics, when the rest of the world still awaits your apology for inflicting her (and Avril Lavigne, and Bryan Adams) on us.

                  You’re preaching to the choir there, Loops. Not much this board doesn’t know about Canadian women’s football.

                    bosstrabs

                    We have a massive inferiority complex. When you have the cultural behamout that is the U S of fuckin’ A to the south of you constantly blowing in your ear, we’ll take any chance we can get to mention that so-and-so is Canadian or Canadians did x successful thing.

                    We’re normally a pretty reserved bunch until one ours becomes successful at something and then we’ll go to great lengths to pat ourselves on the back that x is Canadian.

                    Also, for the record Celine Dion is shit. So is Bryan Adams, Avril Lavigne and Nickleback are the world’s worst abonimation to music.

                    On the upside we’ve been responsible for some great musicians like The Guess Who, The Band, Neil Young, Rush, Nelly Furtado and Richie Hawtin to name a few.

                        loopdokter So is Bryan Adams

                        Sorry, but not having that the ‘Groover from Vancouver’ is shit.

                        ‘Tragically Hip’ on the other hand are/were not just a shower of shit, they were like standing underneath Niagara Falls with slurry cascading over it.