Earl Cochrane marked his final day Friday as Canada Soccer's general secretary looking forward not back. His priorities now are spending time with his wife and two kids — and finding a new challenge.
But Cochrane has had plenty of time to reflect since the April 20 announcement that he was stepping down as the governing body's top staff official.
Cochrane is the latest Canada Soccer official to leave the beleaguered organization. Nick Bontis resigned as president in February, acknowledging change was needed to achieve labour peace with the national teams.
Cochrane says that was not the case for him. "No, I didn't think that it required a different voice. I didn't think that I was in the way" he told The Canadian Press. "It was really a decision that was personal in many respects, about me looking out for me." "It has been a lot in a relatively short period of time," he added. "In some ways it's one of the reasons I needed to focus on me a little bit and why I needed to focus on making sure that I was in the right head space.