Every Team Does It: How…

When the U.S. men’s national team first arrived at their FIFA World Cup training facility, they were excited about everything except for one peculiar feature: a giant balloon.

A federation official remarked recently, “The balloon is an interesting sight, but we must ensure it’s not in operation during our practice sessions.”

This balloon, located in Great Park, Irvine, California, floats high in the sky and resembles a huge mandarin orange. Although it offers breathtaking views from 400 feet in the air, it presents potential challenges.

While the topic of spying in soccer may only occasionally capture the attention of casual fans—like when a well-known team utilizes a drone for reconnaissance during the Olympics, as Canada was found doing in France—many involved in the sport frequently express concerns about being watched. Conversations with players, coaches, and support staff leading up to this summer’s World Cup highlighted this reality.

In simpler terms, the soccer community is filled with individuals who are either (A) tracking others, (B) concerned about being tracked themselves, or (C) both.

This concern has already emerged during the tournament: on June 16, Mexican authorities intervened with a mysterious drone hovering above South Korea‘s practice, and shortly after, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino joked about potential spies while filming from an elevated location before a training session.

“We’re clearly in the spy era,” he quipped, smiling.

The history of notable spying incidents in soccer is extensive and eclectic. Just a month ago, discussions heated up in England about Southampton being caught observing other teams’ training sessions. Last world cup, a Swedish scout was caught spying on South Korea‘s training just before their 2018 World Cup match. And when Canada was implicated in a drone fiasco over New Zealand’s practice, the initial shock quickly faded into a resigned acceptance of such tactics.

“Look, every team is involved in some form of espionage,” stated U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams during a discussion on “The Cooligans” podcast. “I can say with certainty that every squad has some level of it.”

Every team? Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but Adams makes a valid observation. With 48 teams competing in this summer’s World Cup, it seems unlikely that spying isn’t part of the strategies for most, if not all, of them.

Given this context, it’s understandable that the U.S. team might not appreciate having an enormous, publicly accessible balloon just next to their training ground.

“Spying is a fact of life,” remarked a manager with experience at both club and international levels. “Marcelo is perhaps one of the few willing to discuss it, but nearly everyone I know has their own stories to tell.”

The “Marcelo” mentioned here refers to Marcelo Bielsa, the famous Argentine coach who openly confessed in 2019 that his team, Leeds United, had systematically spied on all their opponents that season. Bielsa even conducted a press conference to elucidate his thought process, including the revealing admission that not spying made him feel he wasn’t fully committed to his team’s success.

“We feel guilty if we don’t put in enough effort,” he explained, adding that spying “reduces our anxiety and, frankly, I’m foolish for allowing such behavior.” (Leeds faced a fine of roughly $250,000 following his admission.)

While drones symbolize the modern approach to spying, teams have employed various technologies for surveillance for quite some time. When the U.S. men’s national team plays World Cup qualifiers in Concacaf, part of their routine involves inspecting the venue for any cameras or recording devices.

One former staff member shared stories about finding hidden cameras in unusual spots.

“At the Azteca [in Mexico City], we spotted GoPros on the stadium’s upper ring,” the staffer recounted. “They’ve been found under the medical bench and once even near a spare goal at the field’s edge.”

“Our stance was always to keep them, considering them gifts. No way would the other team contact us to confess their motives and ask for them back, right?”

No one could blame a coach for wanting to spy before a critical game such as a World Cup match or an English Championship playoff with a potential Premier League promotion on the line. However, in some instances, the inclination to spy is so ingrained that it occurs even during inconsequential matches.

Sources within the U.S. federation chuckled as they recounted an episode from a 2021 training camp in Florida when a staff member from Canada’s men’s team was caught trying to observe the U.S. training session a day before a relaxed, unofficial scrimmage.

“Everyone was in disbelief, like, ‘Wait — seriously?'” one federation employee recalled. “It was just a scrimmage. We would have willingly shared our lineup and plans—anything they wanted to know.”

Several coaches and players attributed a cultural perspective to spying: for many South or Central American teams and coaches, it’s expected as standard practice, while their North American and European counterparts are less inclined to assume they’re constantly under surveillance. (Views on this topic vary widely.)

However, the consensus is that paranoia crosses all borders. Coaches from diverse nations and levels typically implement measures to safeguard their training sessions from prying eyes. Conducting sweeps of venues during pre-match training is standard, but such demands for privacy can lead to awkward interactions, particularly when facility maintenance staff are simultaneously trying to do their jobs.

“I often encountered staff members expressing, ‘My manager insists I need to run these wires’ when I’d ask them to step outside,” a former national team staffer shared. “Things could get tense.”

This staffer also mentioned that part of their responsibilities included going around to all fixed cameras in the stadium—those used by broadcasters and thus shut off the day before a match—and adjusting them to ensure their lenses faced the stands rather than the field. “We just didn’t want to take any chances,” the staffer explained.

If this approach seems excessive, consider another amusing story often shared by U.S. federation staffers about Canada. In 2017, prior to a friendly match between the two nations’ women’s teams in San Jose, California, Canadian officials accused their U.S. counterparts of attempting to spy on their practice by placing cameras on the stadium roof. The Canadians insisted vocally that they could clearly see them up there.

The objects that Canadian officials referred to? A couple of plastic birds, installed permanently to deter pigeons.

In certain situations, coaches’ worries about spying are difficult to alleviate. In a World Cup qualifier against Cuba in Havana in 2008, the U.S. team realized that several Cuban players were observing their practice… because they lived in apartments next to the stadium.

Years later, during a tournament match in the U.S., an American coach angrily summoned staff members to point out an individual on a terrace of a nearby high-rise overlooking their training session. “We were at a loss as to how to handle it,” one staff member recalled. “The building was essentially university housing, and it turned out to be just a kid sitting on his balcony, smoking.”

FIFA has assured that robust security measures will be in place around each training site for this summer’s World Cup, and the U.S. has strict regulations concerning drone operators that complicate surveillance attempts for teams even when they wish to film their own practices.

Considering that, the overarching question about spying becomes increasingly relevant: Ultimately, does it really matter? In a sport admired for its fluid beauty, what valuable insights can genuinely be gained by observing a single training session?

Most tactical preferences a team may exhibit are already visible in their previous matches. The same goes for their preferred formations or how they handle pressure situations.

While one might catch a preview of a distinctive set piece or get a sense of where a player might aim during penalty kicks, how much else could be revealed?

“That’s the essence of it,” a veteran coach commented. “I’m not even sure most insights gained from such spying are worth the trouble.”