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Suspended soccer coach Bev Priestman has broken her silence and said she hopes something positive comes out of the ongoing Canadian drone spying scandal.

“I hope that out of a really tough situation, this is a turning point for our game,” she wrote in an Instagram post via her verified account. “There has been a standard and precedent now, regardless of gender, tournament or associated revenue that will hopefully clean up our game.”

She did not address her role in the affair in the six-paragraph post.

Priestman, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joey Lombardi are all serving one-year FIFA bans for their roles in the scandal, which saw Canada’s women’s team use a drone to spy on two New Zealand training sessions at the Olympics.

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Canada Soccer says the three will not be back in the wake of the latest independent report into the scandal. Lombardi is already gone, having resigned his position after the Olympics.

“The findings of the independent investigator reveal that the incident itself was symptomatic of a difficult and unacceptable past culture within the national teams,” Canada Soccer CEO and General Secretary Kevin Blue and President and Chairman Peter Augruso said in a statement when the report was released earlier this month.

Canada Soccer continues to investigate the roots of the spying scandal and has opened disciplinary proceedings against former men’s and women’s coach John Herdman, currently coach of Toronto FC.

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The governing body has said it “has initiated proceedings in respect of Herdman under its disciplinary code.”

Herdman did not speak to Sonia Regenbogen, who wrote the report.

Priestman signed a new contract in January that runs until the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The 38-year-old Priestman took over the Canadian women on November 1, 2020 and was initially appointed “through the next four-year anniversary”. She had been working on a rolling contract – until the new agreement.

“It has and will continue to take some time to process, heal, find the right words and go back into a public setting, but I felt I should say something regardless of the ongoing circumstances,” Priestman wrote.

In addition to the suspensions, FIFA docked the Canadian women six points in the group stage at the Olympics and fined Canada Soccer 200,000 Swiss francs ($312,815).

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Despite that, reigning champions Canada still managed to reach the knockout round before losing a penalty shootout to Germany in the quarter-finals.

“I know the amazing group was poised to reach the top again this summer, but in many ways what they did was even more special under such difficult circumstances,” Priestman wrote.

She also thanked those who contacted her.

“You continue to help me through some dark days,” she said.

Canada Under-20 coach Cindy Tye has been named interim coach for the sixth-ranked Canadians’ upcoming friendlies in Spain against Iceland and South Korea.

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