When Melbourne City Captain and New Zealand international, Rebekah Stott, embarked on her third Olympic Games, unravelling years of drone controversy wasn’t on her bingo card.
On the eve of New Zealand’s Paris 2024 opener with Canada, Stott spotted a drone overhead at training. The incident was immediately reported to French Police, with the spying directly linked to the Canadian national team.
A FIFA investigation led to one of the biggest punishments in Women’s football history, with three of Canada’s coaches banned – including Head Coach Bev Priestman for 12 months – and the team deducted six points in the Group Stage as Canada Soccer was fined almost $350,000.
Known for her awareness on the pitch, the self proclaimed ‘drone enthusiast’ opened up on the moment she spotted the drone.
“We were just doing throw ins and I was waiting for Ali Riley to throw me the ball and I hear this noise. I’m a bit of a drone enthusiast, I’ve got one myself, and so I hear this noise and I’m like ‘oh my gosh, is that a Mavic Pro?’, anyway I look up to my left and sure enough there’s a drone there,” Stott told Sam Mewis from The Women’s Game.
“For there to be a drone over our training session, we were pretty sure it was going to be a team, we just didn’t know which one,” she added. “It was a bit unsettling because obviously they had seen that whole training session and then we had found out later that they had seen another training session, so it was pretty tough.”
Understandably frustrated with Canada Soccer, Stott sympathised with the players – including former City shot-stopper, Lysianne Proulx – after unveiling one of the biggest controversies at the Paris Olympics.
“I’ve played with Kailen Sheridan, Lysianne Proulx and Janine Beckie, so I talked to them before the game and I was kind of like ‘wow, this is crazy’ and they were like ‘we’re so sorry, but we had no idea’,” she explained.
“I think you just have sympathy for them [the players], because they’re not involved in this but at the same time their federation has done this and they have benefited from it.
“I think it put them in such a terrible position but kudos to them, they got that six point deduction, and they were still able to battle and get nine points to get through [the Group Stage].”
Although our skipper has many successful years ahead of her on the football pitch, we’re sure a gig in the drone squad awaits post-football.
“I went outside [after our game with Canada] and the cop who caught the guy was out there so I got a nice photo with him and he’s like ‘if you want a job, you can join our drone squad’,” she laughed.
After an eventful Olympic campaign, Stott is now back in Melbourne as the team prepares to commence pre-season ahead of the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League.
