Heather du Plessis-Allan: Canada needs to be punished properly

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

On first blush, that punishment that New Zealand is asking for in relation to Canada's drone spying might seem harsh - but it’s not.

I think it is exactly what needs to happen. The Canadian football team should be forced to forfeit any points they earn if they win the match against the Football Ferns tomorrow morning.

Which they probably will, because they are the defending Olympic champions and our team are ranked 28th in the world.

Why I think this needs to happen is to stop them - or anyone else - but predominantly them from doing this kind of thing again. Because as I predicted yesterday, this wasn't a one off. Turns out they spied twice with a drone - both this time, and also three days before.

And let's be honest, if they're prepared to do this to a team ranked 28th in the world, it doesn't take a massive leap of logic to assume they’d be prepared to do it to a team ranked much higher who will pose an actual threat to them on the field.

So this is not really about punishing them for spying on the Football Ferns - although there is a tiny element of justice there - it’s really about getting them and and others to suffer sufficiently to cut out this kind of nonsense.

Because if you don't punish them properly, they'll just keep doing it, because the incentive to do it remains.

It's also actually in the best interests of the Olympics and FIFA to be seen taking a hard line on cheats.

For the Olympics - they’ve got a problem convincing audiences that the Games are clean and fair when the Russians are back despite an industrial doping effort by the state. They've just rocked up under a different flag.

FIFA has a massive problem convincing anyone they’re not corrupt.

The Canadians have been caught red-handed here. The guy running the drone has been given a suspended jail sentence by the French justice system, there's no question that they were cheating.

The only question is whether the Olympics and FIFA will punish them properly or not.

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