Canada staff member threatened with prison for Olympic spy scandal

The 2024 Paris Olympics have barely gotten underway, and Canada already appears to be popping up as a bit of a nuisance for the host country.

On Tuesday, the news broke that the New Zealand women’s national soccer team had flagged a drone flying over one of their training sessions. The drone was eventually linked back to the Canadian contingent.

The Canadian Olympic Committee sent home Canada Soccer staff members Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander as a result of the incident, but that might actually be the least of their concerns.

In a press release put out today by a French prosecutor, (and as translated by CBC’s Devin Heroux), more details emerged of Lombardi being arrested and his subsequent acceptance of an eight-month suspended prison sentence, meaning he wouldn’t likely have to serve it should conditions of probation be followed.

“Analysis of the images captured by the interested party showed New Zealand players applying instructions given by their coach, but also images captured previously, on July 20, when they were training in the same circumstances at the Michon stadium in Saint-Etienne,” the release read. “[Lombardi’s] custody was extended by the public prosecutor’s office, allowing him to explain that the videos had enabled him to learn the tactics of the opposing team. He also admitted to the acts committed on July 20, which had initially been kept under wraps.”

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee also announced today that it “has opened proceedings against Canada Soccer, Ms. Beverly Priestman, Mr. Joseph Lombardi and Ms. Jasmine Mander due to the potential breach of article 13 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and article 6.1 of the Regulations Olympic Football Tournaments Games of the XXXIII Olympiad Paris 2024 – Final Competition,” a statement read. “The matter will be submitted for the consideration of the Disciplinary Committee in the next days.”

Canada and New Zealand meet in their opening match of the tournament on Thursday at 11 am ET/8 am PT. Canada enters the tournament as defending gold medallists, defeating Sweden in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Final.

In related news, the Associated Press reported that “about 1,000 people suspected of possibly meddling for a foreign power” have been banned from attending the Olympics or any of its events after over one million background checks.

In any case, don’t expect this story to die down anytime soon.

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