2024 Olympic Games: What Canada women need to do to qualify - ESPN

The group stage of the 2024 Olympic Games women's soccer tournament draws to a close on Wednesday, with Canada's women looking to overcome the odds and qualify despite having six points deducted over a drone-spying scandal.

Here's what Canada needs to do to get through to the quarterfinals, and why they are in this position.

Canada women's soccer coach Bev Priestman was suspended from coaching for one year and the Canadian team penalized six points during the Olympics after FIFA investigated charges staff members used a drone to spy on an opponent's closed practice session.

For the Canadian team, which is hoping to defend the gold medal they won at the Tokyo Olympics, a six-point penalty appeared to make it very difficult to advance to the knockout rounds, while Priestman — who coached as an assistant under Phil Neville with England's women's national team before taking over Canada in 2020 — is prohibited from «taking part in any football-related activity» for 12 months.

The sanctions, which also included a fine to the Canadian federation of about $226,000, were for violating «the applicable FIFA regulations in connection with its failure to ensure the compliance… with the prohibition on flying drones over any training sites,» FIFA said in its announcement.

Canada lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but it was rejected on Wednesday.

Canada had already beaten New Zealand 2-1 in their opening game when news of the points deduction came through. It sent Canada from second in Group A (host nation France was in first place on goals scored) on three points, to the very bottom on minus-3.

A bonus for Canada was that as there are only 12 teams in the women's Olympic competition, so just four are eliminated