Earl Cochrane looks forward to next challenge after Canada Soccer

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. And why I ultimately decided that it was the right thing to kind of step away, not just for me mentally, physically, emotionally but for my family. It has been a lot."

It has also been rewarding, he added.

"Being the first general secretary in 36 years to stand at [a men's] World Cup and hear the national anthem be played are moments that I will never forget, hearing that crowd in Doha prior to the Belgium game is a memory that will be etched in my mind forever," he said.

He also cited the push towards equity and the bid to make it the centre piece of a collective bargaining agreement with the national teams.

"They've been challenging. And it's taken its toll on me. It's taken its toll on the people