The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday upheld a six-point Olympic tournament deduction for the Canadian women’s soccer team in a drone spying scandal, affirming FIFA’s choice to heavily limit the reigning gold medalist facing sharp questions about its tactics to engineer a repeat.
The dismissal of Canada’s appeal came hours before the entire field, with 12 teams split among three divisions, was set to compete in the final games of group play, a decisive moment with four teams to be eliminated by the end of Wednesday night.
It also came as FIFA released a full report of the findings that led to its decision to punish Canada for using a drone to watch New Zealand practice ahead of their Olympic opener. The report revealed a damning picture of Canada’s use of drones to surveil opposing training sessions.
Emails from Bev Priestman, Canada’s coach who was sent home from the Olympics as national officials tried to shield players from fallout, mentioned regular spying in both men’s and women’s soccer, which Priestman described in one correspondence as something that “can be the difference between winning and losing.”
An attorney for Priestman did not return a message seeking comment.
On the pitch, the immediate implications were stark for Canada, which lost the…
