Canada’s appeal against the points deduction for their soccer team at the Paris Games, related to a drone spying incident, was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Wednesday.
A panel of three CAS judges dismissed Canada’s appeal, upholding the six-point penalty that FIFA had imposed on Saturday.
The controversy arose when two assistant coaches used drones to spy on New Zealand’s training sessions before their opening match.
Consequently, Canada was docked six points, and head coach Bev Priestman, along with officials Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander, received a one-year ban from all soccer-related activities after New Zealand reported the drone surveillance to FIFA.
“The application filed by the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer in relation to the six-point deduction imposed on the Canadian women’s soccer team for the football tournament at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 has been dismissed,” CAS said in a statement.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) delivered its urgent verdict less than eight hours before defending Olympic champion Canada faced Colombia in Nice for their final Group A match.
Despite having won both of their previous games against New Zealand and France, Canada remains in third place with zero points. A victory on Wednesday could still see them progress to the quarterfinals.
The unprecedented six-point deduction for breaching FIFA rules during the tournament has no recent precedent in modern soccer.
For comparison, a three-point penalty is currently applied to Ecuador in the qualifying campaign for the men’s 2026 World Cup due to fielding an ineligible player with falsified documents during their 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
In response to the ruling, the Canada Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer issued a joint statement expressing their gratitude to CAS for the swift hearing.
“While disappointed in the outcome of our appeal, we commend the players for their incredible resilience and grit over the course of this tournament, and look forward to cheering them on in today’s match against Colombia,” the statement said.
On Monday, Sport Canada said it was withholding funding allocated for the salaries of Priestman and the two other suspended team officials, calling the drone scandal that has rocked the Paris Olympic soccer tournament an embarrassment to all Canadians.