Dark clouds continue to surround the Canada Women’s National Team. Moments before they kick off their Paris Olympics 2024 journey, shocking news broke that the Canucks spied over the training sessions of Group A rivals New Zealand by flying a drone. Though fingers were raised on the Canada manager Bev Priestman regarding the incident, a new name that goes by Joseph Lombardi has surfaced as the main culprit. But the question looms who is this man that has left his nation in deep waters?
Lombardi is one of the coaching staff members of the Canadian WNT and works as a technical coach in Bev Priestman’s team. He has been working for a very and earned his Canada Soccer Coaching A Diploma in 2009. Since then, he has been making his way into the team by advancing through the ranks. As per the details from his Canada Soccer profile, Lombardi was part of the team staff at the latest FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023.
Before that, the 43-year-old even made contributions to six FIFA youth tournaments spanning from 2012 to 2022. Interestingly, aside from the WNT, Lombardi has worked for CanMNT as well under former coach John Herdman and Eric Tenllado for U15s. Though his experience speaks for itself, it’s unclear why exactly he took this step that eventually brought trouble to his doorstep.
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Notably, Paris authorities have a strict no-drone flying policy around the city as well as special places. Simultaneously, per the statement from the New Zealand Olympic Committee, Jitka Klimkova’s side reported to police after they saw a drone flying near their training ground. French authorities detained the pilot, which turned out to be Lombardi. Now, he is set to face major repercussions.
The punishment that Joseph Lombardi is set to face over the New Zealand Olympics drone incident!
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French police have booked Joseph Lombardi for “flying an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area,” with the coach himself admitting to the wrongdoing. This not only saw CanWNT sending Lombardi home but the 43-year-old soccer analyst has been sentenced to 8 months in jail. Matters became much worse for the Canadian coach when it came out that he flew the drone on July 19th as well. However, Joseph isn’t alone as Jasmine Mander, another assistant coach in Bev Priestman’s staff, was also removed from the team.
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Is Joseph Lombardi a genius strategist or just a cheat for using a drone to spy on New Zealand?
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The Richmond, B.C. native was a key puzzle in the 2021 gold medal-winning team in Tokyo. Coincidentally, Jasmine’s brother, Amar Mander, is allegedly working for the New Zealand women’s soccer team as a physiotherapist. Furthermore, Priestman herself took the call to not remain present on the sidelines for Thursday’s match against New Zealand. “I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program,” she said, a decision she took to “emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity.” Be that as it may, it is indeed quite a shocking incident.
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Is Joseph Lombardi a genius strategist or just a cheat for using a drone to spy on New Zealand?