Former Canada coach Herdman stands on the sideline during a semifinal match of the women's 2016 Olympic soccer tournament against Germany in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.Eugenio Savio/The Associated Press
After a week in which his name appeared in a FIFA document surrounding the alleged use of drones for spying while he oversaw both the women’s and men’s national team programs at Canada Soccer, John Herdman declined to comment Saturday on the controversy.
During a press conference ahead of Toronto FC’s game against Mexico’s CF Pachuca on Sunday in Major League Soccer’s Leagues Cup, TFC coach Herdman said he had no problem focusing on the task at hand.
“I think in football, you have to learn to tune out the outside noise,” he said. “Through my football career, you’ve had outside noise in different moments and sometimes the results are going well and it comes in and sometimes it’s going poorly and you have to respond with the same process.”
There are allegations from Canada Soccer in the FIFA document that Herdman had been the architect of the spying tactics used by the men’s and women’s national teams.
Canada Soccer is undergoing an independent investigation into the matter that ultimately led to FIFA’s year-long suspension of current women’s head coach Bev Priestman and two of her staff members, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and video analyst Joseph Lombardi.
Herdman had said on Wednesday that until the investigation concludes “I won’t be able to comment on those matters specifically.”
Canada Soccer said in the FIFA document: “Canada is investigating the history of this matter, but we suspect that the practice of using a drone stems back to John Herdman when he was the head coach of the women’s national team. In other words, this was a practice started by one person – John Herdman – and continued by Bev Priestman.”
“It was not facilitated by the federation. New Canada Soccer administration is supporting a full independent investigation of this issue and has already taken steps to ensure that this scouting tactic does not happen again.”
Within 24 hours of the document appearing, Herdman’s name had been redacted.
In addition to the three suspensions and a fine of more than $300,000, the Canadian women’s national team was also hit with a six-point penalty. But with three wins out of three during the round-robin stage at the Olympic tournament, the defending Olympic gold medalist advanced to the knockout rounds. Canada Soccer appealed the penalty to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the punishment was upheld Wednesday.
The team lost to Germany in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
With a report from The Canadian Press
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