Bev Priestman arrives for Canada's international soccer game against Mexico in Montreal, on June 1.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
The former head coach of the Canadian senior women’s soccer team says she hopes her sport is able to clean itself up, in her first public comments since the spying scandal at the Paris Olympics in July.
Bev Priestman posted a statement to Instagram on Friday, four months after she was sent home from the Olympics as part of a spying scheme that has tarnished the reputation of Canada Soccer’s women’s program.
“I hope out of a really tough situation this is a turning point for our game,” she wrote. “There has been a standard and precedent set now, irrespective of gender, tournament or associated revenues that will hopefully clean up our game.”
Canada Soccer insiders say its culture problem runs deeper than drones
Ms. Priestman was suspended by FIFA and Canada Soccer after performance analyst Joey Lombardi was caught by French police illegally flying a drone over an opponent’s closed practice on July 22. An investigation by lawyer Sonia Regenbogen found she and assistant coach Jasmine Mander - whose names were redacted from the public version of the report - directed Mr. Lombardi to twice spy on New Zealand ahead of their match at the Olympics.
Canada Soccer announced earlier this month that Ms. Priestman and Ms. Mander will no longer be working for the organization. Mr. Lombardi resigned from Canada Soccer after the Olympics.
The statement from Ms. Priestman, who took over the women’s program in 2020 and coached the gold medal-winning team at the Tokyo Olympics, did not address the allegations that she ordered her staff to gather surveillance on opposing teams.
An investigation by The Globe and Mail found Ms. Priestman and Ms. Mander oversaw a program that was in turmoil a full year before Paris. Last week, The Globe reported that a workplace investigation commissioned by Canada Soccer in 2023, a full year before the Paris Games, made findings about staff sharing concerns about being asked to spy on opponents. That investigation, led by Ottawa lawyer Erin Durant, was sparked by complaints of alleged workplace harassment.
In interviews, some current and former staff told The Globe that the team had become a toxic place to work. They complained about staff drinking sessions the night before games and being made to play party games with uncomfortable sexual questions.
That investigation, as well as a prior 2023 workplace probe by a different firm, did not find violations of Canada Soccer’s Code of Conduct and Ethics, the soccer federation said.
A lawyer for Ms. Priestman declined to comment for those stories. Dean Crawford, a lawyer for Ms. Mander said accounts provided to The Globe about his client directing spying are inaccurate, but declined to elaborate. “At a high level, I can tell you that the allegations made by others to you about Ms. Mander’s involvement in various attempts to obtain surveillance of opponents are not accurate,” Mr. Crawford said.
Canada Soccer told The Globe that it commissioned these investigations but declined to identify who among the organization’s leadership had received a copy. Instead, spokesperson Paulo Senra pointed to former executives at the organization who “fell short” of the disclosure obligations the organization is now implementing. A review of the minutes from that time show the report was not submitted to the board, he said.
Canada Soccer’s interim chief executive officer at that time was Jason deVos, now an assistant coach with Toronto FC, the city’s Major League Soccer team. The Globe previously reported that Mr. deVos had fielded a complaint in August, 2023, from one staffer about employees being asked to spy against their objections.
Mr. deVos, a former player with Canada’s men’s national team, said he could not discuss the workplace investigations, but said he introduced policy changes as a result.
The spying scandal cost the Canadians six points in Paris - the equivalent of two wins at the Olympics - and a $315,000 fine, and prompted the federal government to withhold some of Canada Soccer’s funding. The women’s team went home without a medal for the first time since 2008 after losing to Germany in the quarterfinals.
“I know that amazing group was ready to reach the top again this summer but in many ways what they did was even more special under such difficult circumstances,” Ms. Priestman wrote.
The former coach thanked her family for their support through “the low of this summer.”
“It has and will continue to take some time to process, heal, find the words and step back in to a public setting but I felt I should say something irrespective of ongoing circumstances,” she wrote.
“To the people around the world that see a person behind the public figure who have checked in, some who really didn’t have to but did, thank you. You continue to help me through some dark days.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Bev Priestman’s statement was posted Saturday. This version has been updated.