Halford & Brough in the Morning - Bev Priestman Is Out

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss the latest developments in the Canada Soccer drone scandal at the Olympics with OneSoccer commentator Gareth Wheeler (27:01). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Friday. Sweet, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Guest list today begins at 6.30. Gareth Wheeler, the voice of the Canadian men's and Canadian women's national soccer teams for one soccer, is going to join the program in the wake of Bev Priestman's ouster from the Olympics. Huge story got even bigger yesterday.

New developments. Rick Westhead is on the case. The Canadian drone scandal continues on. Gareth Wheeler is going to join us at 6.30 to talk about it. 7 o'clock, it's Teresa, not AJ, but Teresa from AJ's Pizza. She's going to lay out what's going on in August.

Very special initiative that they're doing for the remainder of the month of August. So Teresa's going to join us at

seven. 705 Harjo Hall from the Daily High Vancouver. We're going to talk about turf installation at BC Place for

tomorrow's match between the White Caps and Wrexham. We'll also talk about Bev Priestman and the Canadian women's soccer team with Har as well. 7.15, Charlie O'Connor is going to join the program from PHLY

Sports in Philadelphia. We'll talk about all the news out of Flyerland. Travis Konechny signs a big extension yesterday. Talk about Matt Vey-Mitchkoff as well arriving in Philadelphia. 7.30, Stephen Holder from ESPN. He wrote a story about sleep, which is something that we don't get enough of.

I'm a Viking. It was sleep and NFL coaches and how NFL coaches are starting to go, hmm, maybe we shouldn't spend 24 hours working and at least, I don't know, 15 minutes of sleep. Get 15 minutes of sleep. Is this stupidly dangerous for my health? Yeah.

Not sleeping for days on end? They didn't even think about it for their health. They thought about it for during the game. They've got these decisions to make on the field, and they've got to make them real quick, and maybe they shouldn't be super tired while they're trying to make them. They needed a doctor to tell them that?

Yeah, I foolishly thought it was about health. It's about coaching at the end of the day. 8 o'clock, Bob the Moj Marjanovic is going to join the program. So it's a big guest list. Tons of guests. Yeah, I love how Halford's last show, he wants to talk the least amount possible. So we're booking six guests.

We're going to try and book a seventh during the show. We're going to put one more right at the end of the show. Reminder, two giveaways today. We got it all. It is an action-packed show. A $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best Ask Us Anything. Folks, let me tell you,

the competition for this one is fierce. We had Ask Us Anythings coming in overnight. The Dunbar Lumber text message inbox is already loaded with AUAs, so you gotta get in, you gotta be good, and you gotta be diligent. Hashtag it AUA.

Put a pizza emoji into your text you'll be entered into the grand prize contest for a 100 gift card to aj's also final day of giveaways for the billy idol platinum blonde tickets july 30th rogers arena that's going to the best of what we learned hashtag ithtag it WWL and put a ticket emoji into your text to be entered into the contest for that one. This is all coming up in the final half hour of the program at 8.30. We'll announce the winners then. So you got about two and a half hours to get your

ask us anythings and what we learneds in. The guest list is too long to work in reverse. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your

life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

As I mentioned off the top, the Canadian Olympic Committee has officially removed Bev Priestman, the head coach of the Canadian women's soccer team, after she voluntarily stepped down for the first match, which ended up being a 2-1 win for Canada over New Zealand. And stepped down so gallantly, too. Just really fell on her sword for that one game. There was a level of gallantness with it. But Bev is now out.

Gallantry. Gallantry. Gallantness-esses. She is now out as the head coach. Gallanticity. To be clear, she's still not officially out-out as the head coach of the team. She's out for the remainder of this tournament. Unofficially, she's obviously out. But officially, She's out for the remainder of this tournament. Unofficially, she's obviously out.

But officially, she's out for the remainder of this tournament. And that is when the final investigation that the Canadian Olympic Committee is currently undergoing, the findings will be made. Because this is going way, way beyond what the Canadian women did at the Olympic Games. Yeah, and we discussed whether there'd be any further fallout yesterday, and, well, there was, and it was pretty much straight away. And I think this story got even bigger yesterday.

Rick Westhead, who certainly did a number on Hockey Canada, is now doing a number on Canada soccer. And this drone spying seems to have not been an isolated incident. It seems to have not only been prevalent in the women's program, but also possibly in the men's program. And I don't know where it started. I don't know where this started,

but a lot of people are wondering about John Herdman now because he coached the women's team and then went on to coach the men's team. with himself or through Kevin Blue, who's in charge of Soccer Canada now, that he was aware of the practice and he's told his staff, no, we're not doing this anymore. I have no comments about our drone spying division. I mean, the division we don't have. It's not a drone spying division. Right. No, no. So basically Canada Soccer, known worldwide now as the cheaters.

The cheating country. That's what we are. Very, very, very revealing article from Rick Westhead, TSN's investigative journalist yesterday. And there are several very specific instances listed in the Westhead piece of previous allegations, which have been sourced multiple times, corroborated in some cases by text messages of both the men's and the women's programming adhering to these practices.

This includes, and I think this might end up being the big one, a spying incident involving team Canada filming, not one, but two of Japan's closed-door training sessions during the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Now, the reason I bring that one up is because there's been a lot of chatter and a lot of banter, and we'll ask our guests today, including Gareth Wheeler, about this, how far back the

sanctions may or may not go, and what light this will cast the Canadian women's gold medal victory in 2020-21 in those Olympics under. If it will rise to the level of, because we've seen it from the IOC before, either rescinding or stripping of the medal. I have absolutely no evidence other than what's being said in various reports and what's being talked about online, that they would actually consider this. But there is, within the Westhead piece, I think it was a double-sourced report that there was something going on in those specific Olympic Games. Now, there was other instances as well. As a matter of fact...

Well, he had a source tell him that it was actually a little tricky in Japan because of the COVID restrictions. And that that so the the person who took the video had to sneak out of his hotel his or her hotel yeah to get the video so and then apparently also breaking covid restrictions to cheat but then apparently once once out of the hotel while breaking covid restrictions actually got a lot easier. Yeah. Because apparently you just kind of walk around and there was nobody around providing security or monitoring all of these airspaces and areas.

By the way, the other crazy part of this is that in that same Westhead report, there are reports of spying dating all the way back to 2019 which is a five-year window which well predates the men's world cup qualification that fantastic run that they went on under john herdman and what's more the 2019 allegation is the men's team spying on the u.s men's team prior to a 4-1 loss in florida back back on November of 2019. You should have worn your Houston Astros hat today. I got rid of that. I bought it because it had an H, and I was coaching at Hastings, and I was like, it matches.

I can wear it during games. We were navy blue. I was like, this works. And then I wore it out a couple times, and then I was like, what's up with the garbage cans? And I never wore it again. Who do you think had a bigger advantage the garbage cans or the drones the garbage cans were garbage cans yeah garbage cans so you do bring up an important point how much do you gain from drone spying and how prevalent is cheating across all the sports

this is not meant this is not meant to try and lessen the seriousness or to downplay the significance of what just happened and what has been happening in the Canadian soccer programs, both men and women. I want that to be abundantly clear. I'm not trying to suggest that this is just par for the course. I don't even want to classify this

as if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, because flying a drone at the Olympic Games is just stupid behavior. Okay? I'll get that out there. That being said, this is in a long list of spying and droning and cheating that we've seen in football, both at the professional and collegiate level. It's pretty prevalent in soccer.

My beloved Leeds United, with their old manager, Marcelo Bielsa, got into a dust-up a few years ago when Frank Lampard was coaching, and they were spying on Frank Lampard's derby team. How were they spying? They went to the training session under the guy like they were. Like mustaches? Yeah, fake mustaches. Mustaches, love it.

Chin putty. They were in there right so uh it's it's it's there i guess all i can say is that when you hear about what they did and the length of time they've done it it wasn't surprising because other teams and i mean at this level maybe not necessarily to this it's not like canada invented spying on other but we perfected it they but they did it at the olympics which is i think is the big one yeah just because well i know they did it as the olympics i don't know if it is for me because as much as the olympics always talks about how we're you know so pure and everything the olympics aren't pure it's there's that part of it but there's also the inherent risk of doing

it at the olympics because what they were talking about in other instances especially when they were in uh doing it like in conca calf qualifying as they said um it was actually pretty easy to do because you know there wasn't this like airtight security and there was like well is fifa in charge of this is conca calf in charge of this who are the well morally and ethically i don't i don't differentiate between spying during the olympics or spying during conca calf qualifying or whatever but um as far as the likelihood of getting caught that's i mean but that's not i mean that has nothing to do with morals or ethics that's just stupid yeah it is but it all like flying a drone i think i think arash madani put it perfectly when we and we played the audio of it yesterday Yeah, it is, but it also- very much a tool of war. And to think that you're going to be able to get a drone up without anyone

noticing. Well, I mean, maybe you could, but it's a heck of a lot riskier to do it that way. And that's kind of the other part of this. When they talk about the culture, the systemic cheating that's in both the men's and women's programs,

because again, going back to what West had reported, staff and contractors were told that the filming and the droning was part of their jobs and that they could lose their positions within the Federation if they didn't go along with it. Yeah. So, I mean, and this goes back to,

well, why is Bev Priestman out? Well, there's someone at the head of both the men's and women's programs. And in the women's case, why is Bev Priestman out? Well, there's someone at the head of both the men's and women's programs. And in the women's case, it was Bev Priestman. So the thought and the initial response that she had no idea that this was going on is almost laughable and comical at this point. And the fact that she would say that and then the Canadian Olympic CEO would reiterate it and say that he believed her is baffling to me and i think the only excuse they might have is that they got caught in the moment and they didn't have time they didn't have time they didn't have time but that to me is i mean we'll talk to gareth wheeler about this coming

up at 6 30 because he's been very pointed in his criticisms of of priestman in particular do you look back on that press conference that john herdman had when he was asked about the drone? Against Honduras. Against Honduras and Honduras complained about it. And then Herdman kind of had a, he kind of said like, well, you know, there's a lot of people that want to see this Honduras team. It could have been, you know, I'm not surprised that there's a drone up there. Do you look back on that differently now? Like he was being super almost arrogant

and like tongue in cheek, almost saying like, you know, catch me if you can kind of, catch me if you can, you know? The impish little smirk and the little grin. And like he didn't think it was a big deal. Right. That was the other thing.

So I have thought about that. And one of the ways that I think he would probably explain it now is that, well, we were in the midst of trying to qualify for the World Cup through a region that is known for subterfuge and the dark arts and sort of underhanded tactics. So all we were doing was merely playing along. Now, I would push back and be like, but the Hondurans didn't send a drone to your training session. Yeah. And I think that's – it really comes down to,

are there levels of cheating for you out there in listener land? And feel free to weigh in. Dunbar Lumber Tax Line 650-650. Is cheating cheating? Are there different levels? Is some okay and is some not? Well, there's a lot of people that will say, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.

And I've always hated that because if you're cheating and you know you're cheating, then you're a cheater. I remember distinctly when that World Cup qualification run was going on is Herdman leaned heavy, heavy into, we have to play the game the way everyone else is playing. And I don't mean the game of soccer. I mean the game surrounding the sport, right? We have to learn how to maybe simulate

and try and gain the advantage of a referee. I remember that they would routinely have Max Crapo fake an injury in the 60th minute of every match so that they could get like a unofficial timeout. Yeah. So, and, and that was just something that Herdman did. He was not opposed to getting in the mud and doing some of the things that

other federations were doing with regularity that Canadians didn't necessarily do i think that's important part of it because there's a lot of people right now that are saying this is unbecoming of canada this is uncanadian like we don't do these things yeah but before then going to the world cup was uncanadian soccer was uncanadian right yeah so it's it's a it's pretty complex i just don't want to be the guy that gets up and tries to explain how cheating is baked into the recipe of some of these

regions and federations and qualifications and try and make it okay because I don't think that's where I want to go with this. Adam from Pocompton, he texts in, Will can FIFA Will or can FIFA disqualify Canada from the World Cup

but keep Canada as a host? That's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. They're not going to disqualify the Canadian men's team from the 2026 World Cup that Canada is plowing millions of dollars into hosting. That's not going to happen. I understand that people are wondering about further consequences.

Um, I've wondered if they go back and take away the gold medal from Canada at the 2020 Olympics, um, which would really, you know, and I don't know if it already has, um, sullied that moment. Uh, cause that was a really cool Canadian sporting moment. And we actually shared that on the show. And, you know, a lot of people really enjoyed that. And it was during the pandemic.

And it was one of those things that helped us get through the pandemic. And now you look back on it and you just look back on it a little differently. Like I imagine, you know, some of the Houston Astros fans look back on a World Series that they won, you know, because of cheating. And it's, yeah, just, you're like, ugh. I don't, I, and that's, and whether or not you look back on it differently at all, it's just annoying that we have to think about this. Annoying is the wrong word, but it's like we were really proud

of that women's team. Yes. Really proud. As Canadians, we were proud of that women's team. And now, and this seems like it happens every time with Canada soccer. Like every time, every time they, you know, the women's team or the men's team, every time there's like this great moment, there's like, oh, you know, when's the other shoe going to drop?

One step forward, two steps back. Yeah, and it's just like, and I know they've had all sorts of leadership changes there, and I imagine Kevin Blue is like, oh God, what have I gotten myself into here? But they just can't seem to figure it out. They can't seem to do anything right. Austin and Langley with the very appropriate end to this conversation with the what we

learned hashtag WWF, what we learned when John Herdman said we are going to F Croatia. He meant film. Good job, Austin and Langley. That's a strong contender for best what we learned of the day. The other news from last night, the Seattle Mariners in a very un-Seattle Mariners like move made a big, big deal late into the evening, acquiring one of the biggest bats available heading into the trade deadline.

Randy Arrozarena, the hard-hitting left fielder from the Tampa Bay Rays, is now a member of the Seattle Mariners. Two low-level minor leaguers, an outfielder, Aiden Smith, and right-hander Brody Hopkins, all going to Tampa in return here's the thing and Laddie and I were talking Laddie was a friend actually broke this on the to the entire group the text by our group track because I was busy doing other things last night I'm looking

at I'm like damn first first blush you're like that is a huge move a Rose Arena many will remember from his outstanding 2020 playoff run which which culminated with World Series MVP. He then lit it up at the World Baseball Classic as well. Like, can knock the ball out of the yard with regularity. Having a down year this year. Having a down year this year. And what did you say about, you know, guys that go to Seattle, Greg? Well, the Sean Figgins, Adrian Beltre, you know,

you always worry about that with the Mariners. But I think anyone is an improvement over the offense that they've given this year. Where high-profile acquisitions go to die. The key to the trade, I think, is the fact that the Mariners only give up their number 12 and 22 prospects in the deal. There is a player to be named later, but neither player in the top 100 prospect list. It's a great deal for the Mariners. They've got two years of control left after this year with Rosarania. So why did

Tampa trade this guy? That's Tampa Bay, baby. Budget reasons? No one really knows why. They like to sell high on their players. But I was digging around. They must really like these prospects. They're very good at talent identification.

There was a lot of the Rays beat writers who were like, this one doesn't make any sense because the Rays have actually played a little bit of better baseball lately, which coincided with the Rosarena. They beat the Jays 13-0 yesterday. They're 52-51. They're only four games out of the wild card. And Rosarena's got, what, two and a half years

left of club control. So it's not like he's a pending UFA and they needed to unload him because they weren't going to be able to bring him back. He was going to be around. It just kind of, it's almost like they overthought it. And instead of, you know, trying to actually win baseball games, they did that baseball thing where they're worried about,

you know, year six of the plan that much further down the road. And I'll be very curious to see if this works because we had Adnan on the show yesterday and we were saying, look, the Mariners just blew a 10-game lead in the division. Houston's caught up.

It feels like they flatlined already, even though there's a lot of baseball left to be played. The Mariners just got swept by the Angels. They're three and a half games back of a wild card. Kansas City currently occupying the third wild card spot in the AL, but Boston is ahead of Seattle and Tampa Bay is in the mix and Texas is in the mix for that wildcard spot. And I suppose you could say that they could catch up to the Houston Astros, but probably not. I would imagine, well, they're only one game back

of Houston, so that's probably their most likely way, just win the division that they were leading for most of the season. I'm excited to watch dude play. A Roseran is a beast, and he has shown a penchant for getting better in the clutch moments. I think everyone talks about the playoff exploits

and then what he did at the WBC as well. I might even go down to go see Randy or Rosarena play. He'll be perfect in Seattle, although they don't have any, they never have clutch moments where they never have opportunities to be clutch. On the flip side, though, for the race fans,

you got to feel pretty bad. You know, they're trying to get a new stadium built and this is the theme of the team, right? Every time a player becomes a star. I wonder if that's going to change if they get this new stadium built and if they can funnel some more revenue into that franchise. This isn't a good sign, though, right?

Not great. It's more of the same from Ray's. To me, he was the most identifiable Tampa Bay Ray. I thought about the team, I'm like a Rosarena. The guy's a beast, right? He's one thing. Good for the Jays, then. Yeah.

Well, they're not winning their division. Going forward. Going forward, yeah. And then one final one that I want to throw out there because we are going to talk to charlie o'connor from phly sports in philly uh and the seven o'clock hour travis connect me signed a monster deal monster extension with the philadelphia flyers yesterday eight years 70 million so when the deal kicks in it's going to have an aav of 8.75 million which is going to make him the highest paid player on the team.

At first blush, it felt like a lot of money and a lot of term for a good player, but not necessarily a star player. And he's being paid like a star player. Although his numbers last year, solid. He's a 30-goal, 60, 70-point guy. And the year prior, actually, he was on pace for even more goals in a season. And I want to talk to, when we talk to Charlie about it, I want to ask what the response has been, because I know it was pretty polarizing.

A lot of people wondering why they were locking in so long to this particular player, but also what the outlook is for the Flyers now, because they are undergoing a youth movement. And Konechny's only 27, but now he's going to be under contract until he's 35. So there is your What Happened for today. Coming up on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650, we're going to be under contract until he's 35. So there is your what happened for today.

Coming up on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650, we're going to talk to Gareth Wheeler from One Soccer, the voice of the Canadian men's and women's team for the national rights holder for soccer. I want to ask him about the criticisms that he has lobbed over the last 24 hours. Very, very public, very, very candid, very, very critical of Bev Priestman, not just of what she did and oversaw at these Olympics,

but what she's done during her tenure as the head coach of the Canadian women's soccer team. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 6.32 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking

for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Gareth Wheeler from OneSoccer is going to join us in just a moment here to talk about the Canadian Olympic drone scandal and Bev Priestman's ouster as the manager of the Canadian women's team. Hour One is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's

premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Gareth Wheeler from One Soccer joins us now on the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Gareth. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys? We're good. What have the last 24 hours been like for you, Gareth?

I feel like we've kind of been in the movie Anchor Band, where things kind of escalated quickly between the Channel 4 news team and everyone else. It's just the dominoes and the speed by which they're falling

is remarkable for me. It just started off, it was being portrayed as an isolated incident and has clearly turned into something much bigger. So I think that even those involved are surprised how quickly this has moved and, quite frankly, where it's ended up, which is a much bigger issue than just the incidents that played out over last week. I couldn't help but notice in watching some of the short video clips that have been posted on OneSoccer's social media

that right from the get, you were very critical of Bev Priestman in particular as being the leader of this program and overseeing an 18-person staff. I gotta ask, prior to this happening in Paris with the drone spying on the New Zealand team, did you have any inkling or thought or understanding or hint that there was a culture of spying or even let's just call it cheating within the women's program before they got caught at the olympics not to this degree now i mean i've covered the women's and men's team uh over the last uh almost 20 years now and there's been a gradual evolution in the way that they handle themselves. I remember back at the 2015 Women's World Cup that was staged here in Canada when John Herdman was the manager of the team, trying to go to their training and what the setup was like.

It was like Fort Knox. You couldn't get in. You couldn't see anything. It was almost overboard to the point of paranoia, and that's when we kind of realized that things had changed. couldn't get in, couldn't see anything. It was almost overboard to the point of paranoia. And that's when we kind of realized that things had changed. And then you learn and see different technology that becomes available and drones for years. So as long as I can remember under the Herdman-Priestman regime, drones are being used as part of the training session in the way that things work. Now, there was allegations in recent years, and we kind of laughed them off in CONCACAF about the Honduran delegation accusing Herdman and Canada of using drones against them.

And there was some suspicion that they might be using things to try to blur the lines and play around the edges but to the degree which was reported last night in such detail i i don't think that anyone thought it was that systematic like people had come out over time and said and and were pretty open about it as well about the different tactics that the coaching staffs would use in order to try to gain an edge or try to get more information. But the brazenness and to the extent that that has been reported over the last 12 hours, I think that is deeper than many people believe it actually was. But most certainly people knew that something was going on and that this coaching staff were willing to push the limits. But just how far, I think that that is the element that was really unclear to most people

that were outside the inner circle. So what's the next step in all this? What's the next story? Do we look back on certain tournaments? Does John Herdman get interviewed? What happens next? Does FIFA get involved? The next step should be

Ben Priestman losing her job. This is a thing. This is a brand new leadership team at Canada Soccer. Good people being ousted for various reporting and various issues over the years. Some I agree with,

some I don't agree with the way that things have been handled over time. But clearly there was a setup within Canadian soccer where John Herman and Bev Priestman were given a lot of power. These two are friends. They're from the same small town. John Herman's brought Bev Priestman to New Zealand and all around the world. These two are very much attached to the hip. So it's very difficult for me to separate the two from one another.

I'm not levying accusations, specific accusations on either one of them, but this culture needs to change and it needs to change now. For me, I mean, looking back at, you know, whether any drone uses or tactical uses, which honestly some of these tactics and things that we're talking about here, I don't know how much of an influence that they have anyways, to be honest with you. This is just a coaching staff maybe taking things too far,

but certainly the culture needs to change. And that's what we've seen in terms of the leadership at Canada Soccer. I think we've seen that with Jesse Marsh since he's come in, even though Kevin Blue this morning acknowledged that Canada's soccer staffer was trying to use a drone at Copa America, which is just stunning to me. But this just shows you the culture that's being established. And unfortunately, everyone involved has been taken along for the ride. They're not the only ones.

Like Marcelo Bielsa, the manager of Leeds, was in a very famous row in 2019 where he fully admitted that his staff had scouted other teams' training sessions and there was a big fine issued and levied his way and everyone moved on. And now he's a coach of Uruguay. And the world keeps on moving on. So in terms of sanctioning, revisionist history, I'm not buying all that. It's just, for me, it's about Canada Soccer establishing what they want this to look like going forward.

And for me, there's just no room for any of this anymore. Get rid of this nonsense. Get rid of all the distractions that have provided these negative context around a lot of positives that's happening in the game in this country. So it's too bad. It's like two steps forward, two steps back, and it's just continual. And until people like Prism are out,

then I just can't see that kind of change taking place. Tell us a bit about Kevin Blue and whether or not he's up for the job. To be honest with you, Kevin Blue, I mean, he is blue in this job. He's completely new to the soccer world. I will give him credit. I think that he's handled some very difficult situations in a real positive way.

I think he's trying to engage and build and connect from a different perspective as well. This is a huge challenge for him. It's not just him. The real head of Canada's soccer is the president, and that is Peter Agruso. He's going to have to be much more front-facing in dealing with this going forward.

The problem with the former president, Charmaine Crooks, who's really well-regarded and a really nice person, she failed to deal with any of these issues head-on. And that kind of led us into this place right now. Remember, Ben Priestman was given a contract extension in January when the entire Canadian Soccer Association was in transition. Whether that was by Charmaine Allone, outgoing and temporary General Secretary Jason DeVos, they handed Ben Priestman a new contract in January, and nothing had to be done at that time. So, I mean, it's not just one individual here.

I just think that the culture completely needs to change. I think it has and will on the men's side with Jesse Marsh and Kevin Blue and Peter Grusso. I mean, they have a really big job on their hands here, and I think they can do it. I don't think any of these things, like, we're living in the moment, right? And everything is the biggest scandal or the biggest issue in the world. You know, it's using a drone to try to get a leg up. I mean, I'm not going to, I don't think it's right.

I do think it's cheating. I think what rubbed people the wrong way, to be honest with you, is the way that Bev Priestman handled the situation. Yes, yes, let's talk about that. She's her own worst enemy here. It was ridiculous to just say, I'm going to step away for a game. I'm going to self-sanction myself by stepping away for a game and leaving two staff members hanging out to dry.

And now you wonder where these leaks and where these stories are coming from, where it's full on mutiny right now i think it's because people like i think people read that story and i've watched this play and i said how how is this happening how can you not take accountability for what is you know clearly systematic systematic within our program like i can't tell you how many people just reach have reached out to me over the last couple of days. You know, and a lot of them were just concerned about Joey Lombardi, you know, a staffer, a contractor that was brought in who spent three days in jail for this. You know, where was his support at that time? And he's a lifer in Canada soccer, not a millionaire, not a guy that's making five or seven hundred thousand dollars a year. You know, he's a guy that was being five or seven hundred thousand dollars a year you know he's a guy that

that was being portrayed as a rogue coach i mean i think that rubbed people the wrong way and then when leaders do not take proper accountability stuff like this happens you start unpeeling that onion and you get a little bit deeper and it stinks and i just wonder how much deeper this will go and what else may come out in this investigation whether it's related to the drones or not how about priestman striking this heroic almost uh tone and i am going to step away from this game because uh it's you know i she even said like this situation you know i'm paraphrasing here demands leadership and accountability so it was almost like a like she she went all in she doubled down and and she she's not only throwing her staffers under the bus um you know the fact now that we can pretty much assume that she knew what was going on

she acted like her self-sanctioning was this massive sacrifice that she was making. And in effect, like she was making things worse. I think that's what irked me the most, her tone when she was asked to explain herself. Yeah, me too. Same thing. That's why I came out as soon as this broke. I mean, the responsibility laid at the feet of one person. And that was the head coach of the team.

And by the way, there's an 18-member staff, 18-member staff. Like, all these stories of distraction about the finances of Canadian soccer, they sent 18 staff members over to this tournament. Like, this whole thing over the years about Herdman and Priestman not getting what they want, it's like, it's just not true. It's just not true. This was her program. This was under her watch.

This was her responsibility. And I think the reaction's been inappropriate. And to be fair, I think Canada Soccer was just, they had to go through the process of seeing how this played out, but the COC didn't really show any leadership either. Like David Shoemaker comes out and says,

oh, I spoke to Bev. She said she didn't have anything to do with it. I washed my hands of it, and she's allowed to stay. And then 24 hours later, she's just being crushed by the same individual. So what is it? I mean, this is what happens when stories develop quickly. I just thought as soon as this thing happened, the CO should have said okay you can stay on as a candidate coach but you're not coaching at this tournament she should have been sent home

right away yeah and the fact that she wasn't as as as made this situation worse and look again like right now the players need the support um you know the new leadership of soccer need support like we in can the new leadership attended to soccer needs support. Like, we in Canadian sports and Canadian soccer specifically, we eat our own. We crap all over one another. You know, whether it's from a media perspective, whether it's a player. Like, we just crush one another instead of building. Hopefully, this is a moment where we can actually rally around our players

and the individuals who are being dragged along in this mess and understand that things need to change culturally within this team and that those proper changes are made in due course uh gareth before we let you go i did want to ask and circle back on john herdman i think we know how the story is going to end for beth priestman it'll probably end with her costing her a job how do you think this story ends for John Herdman? I don't know. I honestly don't know. Like, he has played... I don't think it can be stressed enough how much of an influence or role that he's had over the course of the Canadian national teams

over the last decade plus. Like, he basically set the culture he set the tone uh he left canada soccer in a really difficult place with controversy and distrust and the way the national situation played out uh it was very conflictual in nature. There's something very ironic about all this, that John Herdman last February was reportedly interviewing for the New Zealand head coaching job when he was still the head coach. And his doctor came to his defense, by the way, at that moment, even though there was plenty of documentation provided by people from New Zealand that this was actually the case,

and it seemed like it was the case, and it seemed like Canada Soccer made the decision to protect their manager at that time, only for him to go throw the Canadian Soccer Association completely under the bus. Now, New Zealand, his former federation, where he used to work and where he was interviewing for another job, has kind of thrown everything into a free fall where now the stories have turned against Tim, it's turned against Bev she used to work for New Zealand as well it's just like with the

New Zealand Federation like all these things don't happen in a vacuum if you're going to go public like this you're doing it with a purpose like New Zealand played a significant role in all of this unraveling but once again, the way it's unraveled and how far and how quickly, that's

what has really surprised me. Now that the cat's out of the bag and people are talking, I just don't know what's going to be said next. We'll see how it plays out, but hopefully this all just gets out of the way so they can cut into soccer. We can push forward to 2026.

Some sort of sense of purpose, purpose and pride. And with an actual build where people get opportunities. So let's hope that this moment is necessary in order to make way for a better future. Garrett, this was fantastic. Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this this morning. Enjoy the rest of the Olympic tournament or whatever it brings.

Thanks again for doing this. I'm going to enjoy watching the other sports. Let's put it that way. So I might take a timeout on the soccer. But thanks, guys. Keep up the good work. Thanks, Gareth. You too.

Thanks. That's Gareth Wheeler from One Soccer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We had to let Gareth go, so I'll ask you. What have the early returns on Herdman at TFC been? Mediocre. I mean, they're improved. approved yeah but they were so bad last year do you think mlse now looks at herdman and goes man like is this the guy to take our

program forward i wonder i wonder if um if the stink and the stain will um i i don't know if he's teflon enough yeah in all of this because it definitely sounds like there's a lot more that's going to be unpacked. I mean, it's a kind of trite phrase. Because they kind of lost their culture there at TFC. It wasn't an issue. Like, they weren't all, you know, rolling in the same direction. And, you know, they had some big money players in there and they were losing a lot of games. So they bring in John Herdman to try and fix the culture there.

So based on, I have spoken to people about this before with what john herdman does and it's uh he requires certain like there's asks and there's demands and there's things that he needs and it's all under the framework of building a culture and building a team and he's got his motivational slogans and his you know important bullet points and you know for when he got the men to qualify for the world cup it was all about ending this 36 year drought and paving the way for the future that this group so we were seeing absolutely singing his praises when they qualified for the World Cup. And looking back on it, I'm not going to sit here and say that we were wrong to do that because the guys had come together and they had all committed to play for Canada and they got the job done.

Generally speaking, it was understood that his weaknesses as a manager, which were the tactics and the ability to relate to players, and let's just get out of the way the fact that he was not a player. Yeah, yeah. You know, he came at it from a very unique way. There never been an individual in the history of the sport that had taken a men's and women's team to qualify for the World Cup. He's singularly unique in doing that.

So his weaknesses as a manager were largely overcome by his motivational techniques and his ability to build a program. And a big part of building the program was building a culture. And the thing with that is that it had, there was non-negotiables like things, certain things just had to be the way that he wanted them because he was the visionary. Right. And you sometimes seed a lot of trust to those people where you're like, okay, whatever you need to do to get this done. Now, why was he granted this much authority? Because he got results. He had won at other places.

He had taken the women's program to very great heights. And then he was allowed to do the same with the men's program. And you get everything that you get when you see that kind of authority and power to a singular individual and their vision right and you get the good the bad and the otherwise no not ever perfect and sometimes it's messy and when um the world cup qualification happened he became one of the most influential people in the history of the sport in canada yeah for what he did with that team and And Priestman was very much his protege. Yeah.

Correct? Yeah. Yeah. He brought her along for a variety of gigs. And there was a lot of similarities. Right. There was the idea that... And then when he left the women's team...

Well, there's basically another John Herdman, except her name is Bev Priestman. Right. And she's going to have the same practices and the same understandings of what they want to do. There was always this very odd tie to New Zealand, not discounting the fact that John Herdman's son is a member of the New Zealand national team. There was a rumor he was going to go coach there too, right?

Yes, that's what Gareth was just talking about, right? So there's always been this, I mean, and that's the next part of this which will get unpacked and will be unveiled, is there's a lot of bad feelings and ill will between the canadian federation the new zealand federation it isn't just about drones and spying didn't it sound like there was quite a bit of ill will from some of the underlings who were working for priestman and possibly herdman because it didn't sound or seem like rick westhead had a super tough time getting people who would have been responsible for the drone flying to talk to him.

There's a lot of people that are very upset that Joey Lombardi and Jasmine Mander were being scapegoated. Yeah. And I think they were like. The rogue employees. Yeah. And I think they were like, well, screw this. I'm spilling the beans. Yeah. Yeah, and I think they were like, well, screw this. I'm spilling the beans. And if there's one guy you're going to spill the beans to,

that's going to really create a story out of it. It's Rick Westhead at TSN. Yep. I mean, when you have the amount of people involved in this culture of spying and drone surveillance, and you have the history, like the amount of time that this has been going on. Again, West had got reports

that this was going all the way back to 2019. That's five years ago. That's five years. And the most damning part was people that had suggested, I don't know if I'm comfortable doing this. And they'd be like, okay, well, I don't know if we're comfortable with you on the job then. And it's crazy to me, crazy to me that there was staffers

that Jesse Marsh inherited that were like, well, we're at Copa, should we do the spying thing that we normally do? Jesse, you want me to get to the drone and now, or should I do it later? And he was like, what, what? You're doing what now? So, I mean, that is a very very telling anecdote

that um really highlights and accentuates just how prevalent this was shows up with this drone yeah uh yeah you like drones do you why do every assistant coach i have owns a drone. What's going on here? Anyway, here's the thing. Prior to the Olympics starting, like Monday, basically. Monday. No idea that this was where we were. The opening ceremony is tonight. It's 10.30 a.m. our time, I think. It's 1.30 Eastern.

Oh, and by the way, apparently this is the most elaborate and largest Olympic opening ceremony ever. There's a bunch of teasers that are leaked out there, including one from Bruce Arthur, who is saying, I guess he's seen either a dress rehearsal or had heard about the rehearsals for it,

and it's just so elaborate and so over the top that there's actually concerns that they're like, can we pull this off? I'd be very curious to see. Anyway, it's a 1030 guard time, 130 Eastern. We are through the first hour of the Halford & Brough show

on Sportsnet 650. Coming up, Teresa from AJ's Pizza is going to tell us about a cool initiative that they've got going on for the month of August. Harjo Hall from Daily Hive Vancouver. It is the Whitecaps in Wrexham tomorrow at BC Place, and there is going to be grass at BC Place. We'll talk to Har about that.

And then at 7.15, Charlie O'Connor from PHLY Sports in Philadelphia will talk to us about the Travis Connecty deal in Philly, Matt Vey-Mitchkov's arrival, and everything else that's going on with the Flyers. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Before I go to break, I need to tell you about JanPro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact JanPro for a free, no obligation quote. Visit

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