Why a New Zealand rugby team trainer was arrested for flying a drone in violation of the Canadian Olympic team’s uniform code of conduct (COC 2023)

More troubling: the report alleges that Canadian team staff and contractors were told that drone spying was part of the job — and that their positions were threatened if they didn’t comply. One source told TSN that during the Tokyo Olympics, staff even hid behind bushes, fences, and trees to film the Japanese team’s practice session. Another Canada Soccer contractor said when they refused to partake in the filming scheme for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, they were replaced by a staffer who would.

The head coach of the Canadian Olympic Committee decided to sit out the game due to the fact that she was let go from her position and that one of their employees was found guilty of flying an illegal drone.

The COC identified the two staffers removed as Joseph Lombardi, an analyst with the team, and Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach. The COC said that it was Lombardi who flew the drone in New Zealand.

The New Zealand rugby team had been practicing at the stadium when the supervisor of the training sites in Saint-Etienne reported the presence of a drone.

On two separate occasions, he “had effectively filmed the closed-door training of the New Zealand women’s team, with the help of a drone,” the statement read.

Video footage taken on July 22 shows the New Zealand players applying instructions to each other, as well as images taken on July 20 that he admitted during questioning that they had taken in Saint-Etienne.

The assistant trainer from Canada was questioned by the prosecutor’s office, as well as the pilot from the New Zealand team who was present at the training site. She had no knowledge of the acts and was exonerated, the office said.

A maximum prison sentence of one year and a fine of almost $50,000 were the charges against the man who was charged with maintaining an outlying aircraft over a prohibited area.

Accompanied by a lawyer, the prosecutor’s statement read, the man accepted a sentence of 8 months in prison, as well as the confiscation of his drone and other electronic equipment seized from his hotel room.

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Canada Soccer will conduct an independent review of the incident, while the world governing body for football, FIFA, has launched proceedings.

It would’ve been a big enough scandal had this been a one-off, but TSN’s report cites sources close to the matter saying the team used the same tactics during the women’s team’s gold medal run at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and a Women’s World Cup qualifier game against Panama in 2022. The men’s national team filmed practice sessions and a World Cup qualifier against Honduras in the coming years.