Espionage in sports!

[thewayne]

Well, spying is part of espionage.

Apparently, the Chinese have been spying on Danish women's soccer team. It might have just been to mindfuck the Danes, but the Danes did lose the match. Police are investigating.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/09/spying_in_women.html


And McLaren have been spying on Ferrari in the Formula One motorsports realm. It cost McLaren the Constructor's Cup and $100,000,000 fine! What an amazing sum of money, I wonder who gets it?

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/13/sports/prix.php

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/09/formula_one_rac.html

Comments

[silveradept]

Huh. Admittedly, people are supposed to compete fairly, but I suspect this is a case of someone getting caught doing something people do, and suffering for it, than some out-of-the-blue decision. Ah, well.

[kylejcrb.livejournal.com]

Spying in Formula One is hardly anything new: McLaren was just bad enough at it to get caught. :P

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

That's what a lot of people are saying. The significant punishment for McLaren is apparently two-fold. First, losing out on the Constructor Cup. Second, apparently they'll be in a tiny little garage for next season!

[kylejcrb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that really sucks for them. Although it begs the question: If they won the Constructor's Cup, why did they need to be spying on Ferrari?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Some say it was lower-level minions that screwed the team over, others say management was in the know from the beginning. Another angle is that Ferrari is ALWAYS a tough competitor, so getting docs from them couldn't be anything but advantageous, but they got caught and now must pay the piper.