Honduras coach Jorge Luis Pinto says the drone that flew over the team’s training session was an act of espionage and labelled the incident embarrassing for Australia.
Drone-gate occurred during the Honduras training session at ANZ Stadium last night, with the story first coming to prominence when the official twitter account of the Honduran national team posted a video.
Reports in Fairfax today suggested that rather than foul play, it was just a case of a father and son engaging in some fun near Olympic Park.
In a scene more like a James Bond movie rather than a football game, the 64 year-old coach insisted it was the work of Australian spies.
“Let’s not be innocent it’s espionage in football,” Pinto said speaking through an interpreter. “Just like VAR has made its way to football, drones have made their way to espionage.
“The incident is embarrassing for such an advanced country. When Australia went to Honduras they checked every bathroom, every box at the stadium when they trained and also where they had the official training.
“So once again it’s just an embarrassing incident and that the videos show more than anything a drone can show.
"It just takes some of the merit away from fair play and the sporting event that will be held tomorrow."
AUSTRALIA espía entrenamiento oficial de #Honduras desde un dron; lo que ocasionó el malestar del equipo y delegación hondureña. pic.twitter.com/anCAgHtsMP
— FENAFUTH (@FenafuthOrg) November 13, 2017
Drone-gate is not the only incident that has involved accusations of murky behaviour.
Earlier this week, Pinto suggested that vital team information had been leaked out of the Honduras camp and was provided to the Australians.
Despite accusation of covers ups, dirty tricks and double agents, Pinto still found time to praise Australia for its hospitality.
“Regardless with the incident of the drone and also the possibility of the journalist from Honduras leaking the information regarding our team, I am very happy with the welcome here in Australia," he said.
“We are very comfortable. We are just hoping for a good game tomorrow. We’re facing a balanced side and we need to be aggressive.
“I’ll be even happier if we are able to go back to Honduras with (World Cup) qualification with us.
Meanwhile Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou refused to associate himself with claims of espionage or any other off-field issues.

“I’m not really concerned to be honest,” he said at Australia’s official pre-match press conference.
“We are flat out focusing on ourselves. There was a fair bit of drama before the first game and again we stayed right out of it.
“As I said after that game, it’s all pretty irrelevant and after the first whistle goes tomorrow night it will come down to those 90 mins and whatever is said beforehand is meaningless.”
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