2024 Paris Olympics: A timeline of the Canadian soccer spygate scandal in France

We didn’t even make it to the Opening Ceremony before a spying scandal rocked the 2024 Paris Olympics.

A Canadian soccer staff member was caught flying a drone over a New Zealand practice earlier this week in France ahead of their group stage game on Thursday. The staffer in question was detained and eventually sent home from the Games after French police searched his hotel room and recovered the drone footage.

That, of course, has prompted multiple investigations.

While there are still plenty of questions to be figured out, here’s everything we know so far about the Canadian soccer spying scandal in Paris.

July 20: New Zealand trains at Michon stadium in Saint-Etienne

New Zealand opened practices on Saturday in France ahead of the Olympics.

July 22: New Zealand Football lodges complaint

The local prosecutor's office said that a supervisor of the Olympic training site informed police that a drone was hovering over Auguste Dury stadium on Monday. The team manager of New Zealand had informed the supervisor of the drone and immediately stopped the training session.

Police later arrested 43-year-old Joseph Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst” with the Canadian women’s soccer team, who was operating the drone and filmed the closed-door training session. Lombard's hotel room was searched and the drone was seized. He admitted that the videos of two closed training sessions (including one from July 20) "had enabled him to learn the tactics of the opposing team."

Lombardi was charged with flying an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area, and accepted an eight-month suspended sentence. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander was interviewed and not charged.

July 24: Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) statement on complaint by New Zealand Football

The COC issued a statement saying that they were made aware that a non-accredited member of the Canada Soccer support team was detained by French authorities after New Zealand lodged their complaint.

The complaint said that a Canada Soccer staff member allegedly used a drone to record the New Zealand women's team's training session on July 22.

The COC offered its "heartfelt apologies" to the New Zealand players and said they would review next steps with the IOC, Paris 2024, Canada Soccer and FIFA.

July 24: Canada head coach Bev Priestman removes herself from opening match

Following the COC review of the drone incident, they discovered a second incident involving a drone and the July 19 New Zealand training session.

Upon learning these new details, two staff members — Lombardi and Mander — were removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and sent home immediately.

Canada women's head coach Bev Priestman told the COC she would step aside for the team's opening Olympic match against New Zealand on July 25.

Canada Soccer staff was also ordered to undergo mandatory ethics training.

July 25: Canada-New Zealand match

With Priestman back at the team's hotel and assistant coach Andy Spence in charge, Canada picked up a 2-1 win over New Zealand on Thursday in their first group stage game of the Olympics.

Cloé Lacasse scored first for the Canadians in extra time just before halftime, which evened the match up after Mackenzie Barry scored in the opening minutes for New Zealand. Interestingly, Barry's goal came off a set piece. Canada's Evelyne Viens then scored in the 79th minute to put Canada up by a goal and eventually give them the win.

The win gave Canada three points in Group A, which has them tied with France in the lead early. France beat Colombia in their first group stage game 3-2 on Thursday.

Canada and France will square off Sunday.

July 25: Canada suspends, sends home coach Bev Priestman

Shortly after their win over New Zealand, Canada Soccer announced that it has suspended Preistman for the remainder of the Games. Priestman was then sent home from the Olympics, and Spence was named the team's interim coach.

The announcement came as a report from TSN alleged that the spying was something that has been going on for years within both the men's and women's national teams. The women's team even allegedly used drones to spy on opponents both during the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where they won the gold medal — and the following year as they were trying to qualify for the Women's World Cup.

July 26: Canada Soccer CEO has not considered pulling team fro Olympics

Kevin Blue, Canada Soccer CEO, held a press conference on Friday and said that no players were involved in the drone spying scandal and that he hopes FIFA takes into consideration how the federation handled the situation if more punishment is to come.

On the topic of the men's and women's teams spying in the past, Blue said he learned this week that there was "attempted drone usage" by a member of the men's coaching staff during Copa América. Blue said Canada men's head coach Jesse Marsch learned about it "after the fact" and "has denounced it as a practice to his staff."

“They gave me reasons to think further about the potential that this behavior was systemic,” Blue said.

Blue added that he believes Canada Soccer's reaction to the scandal was appropriate enough that he has not considered withdrawing the team from the Olympics.

July 26: Former Canadian captain Christine Sinclair says that players were never shown drone footage

Former Canada WNT captain Christine Sinclair, who retired from international competition in October, said in a statement on Instagram that she and the team were never shown drone footage in her 23 years on the team.

"It's unfortunate that the players of our National Team have had to play through condemnable actions by some of their staff as they attempt to defend our gold medal. Actions players have no control over," Sinclair wrote.

Sinclair racked up 331 caps during her time with Canada, and played in four Olympics. Sinclair finished her statement by saying that she planned to support the players throughout the tournament, and asked Canadians to do the same.