A pair of West Virginia women’s soccer alumni helped Canada to a win in their opening game at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but now the team is at the center of a major controversy that will likely result in them failing to defend their 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medal victory.
A 2-1 victory over New Zealand should have WVU alums Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence and the Canadian national team they represent at the top of their group right now, but it has been overshadowed by a scandal -- a Canadian official was caught using a drone to spy on New Zealand’s practices before the matchup, with Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue acknowledging that it has been discovered this practice of drone usage was not limited to the women’s team or the 2024 Olympic Games.
Soccer governing body FIFA has announced that Canada’s women’s soccer head coach Bev Priestman, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and staffer Joseph Lombardi have all received a one year ban from competition, and the organization has been fined.
But what is most impactful for the program is that they were docked six points for the scandal in the group stage of play, meaning that they will have to win their remaining two games to earn just three points, which even then will put them on the brink of elimination in the games. FIFA said that the staff involved in the scandal are “"responsible for offensive behavior and violation of the principles of fair play."