It began with a tweet, as FENAFUTH — the football governing body in Honduras that oversees the Honduran national soccer team — released an 18-second video of a drone in flight above where the team was training at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
The Hondurans were upset, calling the drone a “spy” in advance of Wednesday’s World Cup playoff match against Australia that will decide which team qualifies for the World Cup in Russia.
Honduras coach Jorge Luis Pinto fanned the flames at his press conference, telling reporters through a translator on the eve of the match that the incident was “embarrassing for such an advanced country.”
“When Australia went to Honduras, they checked every bathroom, every box at the stadiums where they trained and also where they had the official training,” Pinto said of what happened leading up to the scoreless tie the two teams played to in Friday’s match.
“The videos show more than anything a drone could show, and it just takes some of the merit away from the fair play and the sporting event that will be held tomorrow.”
But was the drone actually spying on Honduras? The Sydney Daily Telegraph reported that according to a stadium spokesman, an Football Federation Australia official drove Honduran counterparts in a buggy around the stadium after the drone was spotted, and they found a pair of children playing with the drone in a neighboring park.
Pinto laughed when asked if he didn’t accept that this was an innocent mistake.
“Let’s not be innocent,” Pinto said. “It’s espionage in football. Just like VAR has made its way to football, drones have made their way to espionage.”
