Canadian Soccer Players Deny Knowledge Of Drone Spying

The Canadian women's soccer team's Olympics came to an over the weekend, bringing an end to one of the most controversial (not the most controversial; not even close) stories of the Olympics.

It began even before the Opening Ceremonies when New Zealand's Olympic Committee filed a complaint with the IOC after a drone flew over their team's practice ahead of the tournament-opening match against Canada.

That drone, it turns out was being piloted by Canada Soccer team analyst Joseph Lombardi. The fallout led to head coach Bev Priestman being sent home and dealt a one-year suspension. Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander also received suspensions.

But one of the controversial aspects of this story was that part of the punishment involved docking the Canadians six points in the group stage. The argument was that the players had nothing to do with it, therefore, they shouldn't be punished for it.

Despite the six-point penalty, the Canadians won all three group-stage matches but fell to the Germans in the quarterfinal.

Canadian women's national soccer team players are speaking out about how they had been unaware of their coach's efforts to spy on the opposition. (Getty Images)

Canadian Players Deny Knowledge Of Drone Spying

Following the knockout, some Canadian players maintain that they were not aware of the spying.

"We were in shock because on the first day, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) met with us and made it clear that drones were illegal in France," team Canada veteran Vanessa Gilles said in an interview with Radio-Canada, per Sportsnet. 

"We banged our heads against the wall, so to speak, wondering what our coaches were going to watch of the New Zealand training. To this day, we still don't understand."

This sentiment was echoed by Gilles' teammate Gabrielle Carle.

"Never in our lives could we have thought of that," Carle said in that same interview alongside Gilles and another teammate, Évelyne Viens. "It's frustrating to know that our coaches didn't think we could win with integrity."

You've got to take their word for it, but what's interesting is that previously released emails sent by Priestman indicated that there may have been a larger spying operation on both the men's and women's side. If that's the case, it stands to reason that some of that footage would have been shown to players.

Who knows? At the very least, the players have their story, and they're sticking to it.