The Canadian soccer team said its coach will sit out of the side’s next game and two assistants have been sent packing after a drone was caught flying over the New Zealand soccer team’s training session.
Joseph Lombardi, an unaccredited analyst with Canada Soccer, has been removed from the Olympic team, the COC said in a statement Wednesday.
CBC Sports reported that he has accepted an eight-month suspended prison sentence.
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It comes after the New Zealand Ferns soccer team spotted a drone flying above their stadium during practice, according to a statement put out by the organization.
“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 team wrote in the statement.
The incident led the NZOC to file a complaint with the International Olympic Committee against Canada.
“On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada. This does not represent the values that our team stands for,” Canadian head coach Bev Priestman said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Canadians also confessed “of a second drone incident at a July 19th New Zealand practice,” in the statement.
Priestman, accordingly, stepped down along with “Joseph Lombardi, an unaccredited analyst with Canada Soccer” and “Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach to whom Mr. Lombardi reports to.”
Lombardi received a suspended sentence on Wednesday after being charged with flying a drone over a prohibited area, meaning, if he does not commit another offense within a specified amount of time he will not be sent to prison, according to the Toronto Star.
“I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld,” Priestman wrote.
“Canada Soccer staff will undergo mandatory ethics training,” the statement added.
However, the Canadians were not the first committee to illegally fly drones around the practice area.
Members of French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s team told Agence France-Presse that the communications director of the Brazilian delegation was also apprehended for operating a drone.
Attal also said that French authorities have intercepted an average of six drones every day near Olympic sites.
However, he qualified that the drones are being used by “individuals, maybe tourists wanting to take pictures.”
