The Canadian Olympic Committee has officially filed paperwork to appeal the six point deduction levied against the Canadian Women’s soccer team at the Paris Olympics.
The Canadian side was penalized 6 points (the equivalent of two wins) in the group play stage of the Olympic Soccer tournament after reports surfaced that the team had used drones to monitor their opponent’s practice sessions.
The players were steadfast in their denial of having been involved, or to have benefited from the drone scandal, however head coach Bev Priestman, along with several other staffers were sent home from the Olympics, and barred from future international competition for at least a year.
While the appeal stops short of denying inappropriate use of drones by an accredited member of the coaching staff, Canada Soccer has made the argument that the severity of the penalty doled out by FIFA is both unwarranted and unprecedented in the sport.
“Earlier today, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer have appealed FIFA’s automatic deduction of six points from the Canadian Soccer Association’s Women’s representative team’s standing in Group A of the Olympic Football Tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympics,” the COC said via a prepared statement Monday.
“The appeal is based on the disproportionality of the sanction, which we believe unfairly punishes the athletes for actions they had no part in and goes far beyond restoring fairness to the match against New Zealand. The appeal has been submitted to the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s Ad Hoc Tribunal in Paris for the Olympic Games, which allows matters to be heard on an expedited basis during the Games.”
“In order to preserve the integrity of the appeal process we will wait until the process is complete to comment further.”
The hearing is believed to be scheduled for Tuesday, with the hope that a final decision will be made prior to Canada’s final group play match vs. Colombia. Canada Soccer is appealing only the points deduction, and not any suspensions of Priestman or other staffers.
Canada’s final game of the preliminary round takes place on Wednesday July 31st, at 3pm ET.
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