John Herdman, the former head coach of both the Canadian men’s and women’s national soccer teams, becomes a central figure in a looming scandal over Canada Soccer’s attempts to spy on opponents that came to light shortly before the start of the Paris Olympics .
News broke Wednesday that the Canadian women’s national team had flown a drone over New Zealand’s training several times ahead of Thursday’s opening match of the competition, which Canada won 2-1. FIFA has since awarded Canada six points, banned head coach Bev Preistman and assistant coaches Jasmine Mander and Joseph Lombardi for one year and fined the Canadian Soccer Association $226,000 for that specific incident. However, since the first story broke, several reports have emerged that espionage has been a long-standing practice for both the Canadian men’s and women’s national teams.
ESPN reported this on Saturday that the U.S. Soccer Federation was aware of Canada’s attempts to spy on them, including in January 2021 when both countries’ men’s teams were training at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Instead of sending a drone on that occasion, a Canada Soccer staffer pretended to be on the IMG Academy payroll while watching a U.S. training session before a security guard verified his employment and told him to leave the practice.
According to ESPN, US Soccer did not report on Canada at the time because of the federations’ relationship to co-host the 2026 World Cup with Mexico.
ESPN also identified Herdman as a “common denominator” in both teams’ attempts to spy on the opposition, despite acting publicly and privately paranoid that other teams were spying on his squad. Herdman, now the head coach of MLS side Toronto FC, said at a news conference on Friday that he did not spy on opponents at the World Cup or the Olympics but would cooperate with any investigation. However, the ESPN report says US Soccer officials expect Herdman to be involved in the scandal.
Although FIFA has issued strict penalties for the incident involving New Zealand during the Paris Games, investigations are ongoing into an alleged habit of spying. Reports indicate that Canadian teams have tried to spy on the opposition as early as 2019 and even during the Copa America, where the men’s team finished in fourth place this month.
Most importantly, reports indicate staff spied on the opposition during the Canadian women’s team’s run to the gold medal at the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Players have denied seeing drone footage during that tournament.