April 21 – Canada Soccer is parting ways with general secretary Earl Cochrane, after he spent little more than a year in the position. His departure follows the exit of president Nick Bontis in February.
Cochrane is leaving the organisation by mutual consent but will stay on in his role until May 12 “to assist with the transition”. In a statement, Cochrane, who has worked for the organisation for 15 years across two stints since 2001, said that he was confident that he has “left Canada Soccer in a better place.”
He added: “I am proud of the role that I have played in helping to stabilize this organization through its various periods of success and challenges.”
Bontis left after a vote of no-confidence from the provinces amid a high-profile labour dispute with the women’s and men’s national teams over pay and other issues. Charmaine Crooks was appointed interim president of Canada Soccer in the wake of his resignation.
Canada Soccer has also received criticism over its relationship with its commercial partner Canadian Soccer Business.
At a standing committee on Canadian Heritage, Cochrane and other football officials defended the organisation against accusations of sexism.
“Recently Canada Soccer made some funding decisions for the operations of the women’s team that it thought would have minimal impact,” said Cochrane. “We were wrong. Those decisions were made with good intentions of controlling spending. But we should not have made those decisions that negatively impacted the women’s team.”
He also faced questions over Canada’s Soccer deal with Canadian Soccer Business, which the national teams argued prevented the organization from maximizing revenues.
“There are drawbacks of the agreement with CSB. But we hope to resolve those issues shortly,” said Cochrane. “We are listening and responding to what the players and technical staff need.”
This year national team budgets were slashed with the women’s side threatening a strike at the SheBelieves Cup. Chief marketing officer Sandra Gage was fired and longtime communications director Richard Scott also exited.
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