Honduras accuse Australia of spying by drone

SYDNEY: Honduras accused Australia of spying on their training sessions with a drone yesterday as tensions heated up before tomorrow’s decisive World Cup play-off match.

The Honduran National Football Federation (Fenafuth) posted on Twitter 18 seconds of footage of a drone flying above Sydney’s Olympic Stadium, where the team trained after their long flight from central America.

“Australia spied on Honduras’s official training session from a drone, causing discom- fort among the Honduran team and delegation,” Fenafuth said.

Honduras face the Socceroos at the same stadium tonight for the deciding second leg of their intercontinental play-off with the scores level at 0-0 after a tightly fought first leg in San Pedro Sula on Friday.

“We weren’t involved,” said a spokesman for Football Federation Australia.

Honduras boss Jorge Luis Pinto was also involved in a row with the media at the start of the session when he tried to close training before the 15 minutes of open access allowed under Fifa rules.

“They should show us some respect, we respected them in Honduras so they should show us respect here,” he shouted in Spanish at photographers and cameramen.

Colombian Pinto also suggested on his arrival in Sydney that someone in the Honduran media had leaked tactical details to Australia, broadcaster Televicentro reported.

According to a report, Honduras team management sent up drones of their own in 2016 to ensure no unauthorised parties were monitoring their training sessions. – Reuters LIMA: New Zealand’s towering striker Chris Wood is set to start tomorrow’s decisive World Cup play-off match against Peru and the hosts are concerned about the size of their opponents all over the pitch.

The five Kiwi defenders who started Saturday’s 0-0 first-leg draw measured an average 1.84m, while the four Peruvians who played up front against them were on average 10cm shorter.

“The fact is that this game is going to be as hard and complicated as the game was in New Zealand because it’s not easy to play against the walls that make up their defence,” Peru striker Jefferson Farfan said.

The Peruvians have been fretting over the appearance of the 1.91m Wood, who came on with 15 minutes remaining in the first leg and caused problems for the visitors’ defence.

New Zealand expect to have Burnley striker Wood on from the start after a hamstring injury restricted him to a substitute appearance in Wellington.

Peru are still without the suspended Paolo Guerrero as they attempt to reach the finals for the first time since 1982. – Reuters