Olympic Games/women's football: Canada deducted 6 points for violating "fair play principles" (FIFA)

"An automatic deduction of six points from the Canadian Soccer Association's (CSA) women's representative team's standing in Group A of the Olympic football tournament (OFT), and a fine of CHF200,000 (€208,000), and Beverly Priestman (coach), Joseph Lombardi (performance analyst) and Jasmine Mander (assistant coach) suspended from taking part in any football-related activity for a period of one year," was the sanction imposed by FIFA on Canada Soccer on 27/07/2024.

The decision was taken when it was learnt that a drone controlled by Canada's technical team flew over the training ground of the New Zealand team, who are also in Group A of the women's tournament (along with France and Colombia), before the start of the competition.

"CSA was found responsible for failing to respect the applicable FIFA regulations in connection with its failure to ensure the compliance of its participating officials of the OFT with the prohibition on flying drones over any training sites. The officials were each found responsible for offensive behaviour and violation of the principles of fair play in…