Canada Soccer Federation identifies 'pattern of an unacceptable culture' in 2024 Paris Olympics drone investigation

The Canadian football federation has received the original findings from an investigation into its spying scandal, and plans to reveal the findings in the coming days, the governing body announced in a statement. Les Rouges women's team were caught spying on New Zealand using drones, leading to head coach Bev Priestman and members of her coaching staff leaving their posts. They were also docked six points.

The initial incident at the Paris games was the beginning of a wider scandal in which it was claimed that Canada had repeatedly engaged in unethical behavior. The men's team reportedly used drones in both 2019 and 2021 to spy on first the USMNT then Honduras prior to games.

In a podcast appearance, USMNT captain Tyler Adams later admitted that "every team" engages in some sort of spying activity.

"I mean, listen, every team does it. I know for a fact. Every team does it in some capacity. I don't know about drones and sh*t like that seems, that seems a little bit crazy. But like, there's always people when you train in stadiums the day before games or whatever, someone will be acting like a worker and they're, like, really working for a different federation or something like it happens. It happens consistently. I'm positive of that," he told The Cooligans.

Jesse Marsch, Canada's current men's head coach, discussed the challenges of the spying scandal in a recent interview with GOAL US.

"There are levels of things [like this] happening in the sport," he said. "When we played in the Champions League, you go to the [opposing] stadium the night before... You know that pretty much the cameras are going to be on and probably someone from the [opposing] technical staff is watching training, right?"

He added, "I know that the country has been disappointed...We're going to find a way to still get through this the right way and make sure we continue to push our program the right way."

Kevin Blue, the CEO and General Secretary of the Canadian Soccer federation, announced that the findings of the investigation would soon be revealed: "Our initial review of the conclusions of the independent investigator reveals that the drone incident in Paris was a symptom of a past pattern of an unacceptable culture and insufficient oversight within the national teams. While we are being thoughtful about how best to address the findings, we also want to move decisively. To that end, we will release key conclusions and next steps within a week."

It seems that more information regarding the scandal will come out within the coming week. The Canadian men's soccer team will play Suriname in the first leg of their Nation's League quarter final tie on Nov. 15.