With the Olympic Games about to start, we already have the first drama, this time, surrounding the defending women’s soccer champions, Team Canada.
They will face New Zealand in their first match on Thursday night, in what will be a very heated game because the ‘Kiwis’ just accused the Canadians to be spying on them during the training sessions. Apparently, they spotted a drone flying over them on Ferns training session in Saint-tienne, France. They acknowledged the French local authorities about the issue. Their surprise came when they found out the operator was a member of Team Canada’s support staff.
Team New Zealand complained
According to the Associated Press, New Zealand announced that it has filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) integrity unit over a drone that flew over one of their training sessions earlier this week.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) published a statement in their official web page regarding this matter:
On July 22, a drone was flown over the New Zealand women’s football team training session in St Etienne.
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 NZOC has formally lodged the incident with the IOC integrity unit and has asked Canada for a full review.
Team Canada has issued an apology and is investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The NZOC and New Zealand Football are committed to upholding the integrity and fairness of the Olympic Games and are deeply shocked and disappointed by this incident, which occurred just three days before the sides are due to face each other in their opening game of Paris 2024.
At this time the NZOC’s main priority is to support the New Zealand women’s football athletes and wider team as they start their campaign.
Desire to clarify the facts
The Canadian Olympic Committee denied any connection with this incident stating that the person detained does not belong to the Canada’s Soccer support team. They also expressed they feel shocked and disappointed by this allegations.
The COC is currently investigating the matter and would address the ending of the story as soon as possible. Spying other teams is a complete violation of the well-being conduct, sportsmanship and fair play everyone is meant to maintain, and it could bring really bad consequences to the guilty.
