Paulo Poccia: "The main goal is to stay up" | OneFootball

The women's football coach of Unión talked with La Doce about Unión's debut in the first division of Argentine football, which will take place in the first days of March.

Indeed, we are already in the final stage, with about three weeks left, four if we count the week before the tournament starts. We signed 15 professional contracts, which is what AFA requires to participate, and the rest of the girls signed an agreement with the club to also be on par with those 15 players. We believe that the path we are on will allow us to compete in the first division this year, maintain the category, and ensure this lasts over time.

Yes, we lost an assistant coach, Meli returns to the field because she needed to close her cycle as a player. Now she has a quadriceps strain, so she's recovering, but she went from being an assistant coach to a player again.

No, I think the main goal this year is to maintain the category because there is a big difference between B and A, as most teams are 100% professional and don't have to do another job, which shows a bit of a physical difference in terms of the players' structure; they are athletes, so that's the difference. But I believe, based on what we've seen and analyzed from the teams, that Unión will be able to be among the top eight if we adjust a few things we've been working on.

You have at least four, River, Boca, Talleres, and Belgrano are a little above the rest, Racing too, those five are always up there and make a bit of a difference, but the difference also comes with the facilities for training, budget issues, and that topic. There is a strong investment in those clubs.

Yes, indeed, there is a structure completely similar to the men's but with the women's, from the sports director to the last kit manager.

Yes, it's historic like that moment, in 2023 when we participated for the first time, that promotion, then in 2024 we had a pretty tough year in terms of the final result, which was that semifinal with Estudiantes.

In 2025 we prepared to see if that promotion was achieved, and when we were promoted, everyone started to arrive, the players who wanted to come to Unión and others, and the teams that also achieved that promotion, which are generally from the interior, would say, but you can't maintain the structure that the base played because they are not trained, and I told them yes, so if everything goes well and runs smoothly, we will be the first team to maintain the base of 2023, the C in the A, to maintain the category and have a good result, we will be the first team in history.

Yes, no, no, no, today we have a Unión school, girls from three years old who already want to participate, four, five, six, the other day we went on Monday and Tuesday we were in San Jerónimo, in Libertad, doing a preseason, and then on Tuesday afternoon we had a friendly with them, and the little girls of 9, 8 asked for autographs from the girl, photos, so it's growing, and being Unión the only one in the city of Santa Fe participating in AFA, it should be a model, an example beyond the club one supports.

Lately, more women are being seen in the First Division, but yes, there are male coaches, it's still not 100% that women start studying to be head coaches.

They had to take the course, it's true because they have to graduate sometime, to be able to work as a coach they have to have the course. Yes, they have an A license, it's three years, and now they are also requiring it.

No, they are different, each license has a certain age limit you can coach, the A is up to the third division, and then you need the Pro license to coach internationally like in the Sudamericana, Libertadores, for which you need to have a minimum two-year contract with a club.

Our team is the youngest, let's say. It has an average age of 24.

We are 16 teams, there are two long tournaments of 15 matches. From the Clausura, the location changes in the Clausura. There is a spot for the Libertadores, but it might open to two this year, depending on how it goes. The champion for sure? The champion for sure, but if there are two different champions, a superfinal is held to see who goes to the Libertadores. And if an extra spot opens, the two champions vary the cup. And the relegation is without average, the last two teams in the general table are relegated.

The idea is to televise all the matches in the same format as the men's reserve. Through the platform, yes. And there are one or two matches that are televised on TV.

There are still some issues regarding the players' salaries, which I believe is something that AFA also needs to handle differently. Because the salary table that AFA or Agremiados provides is not something that needs to be updated so that the girls can dedicate themselves 100% to football.

Yes, Martino Petitti returned, who was the assistant I always had since I started in 2021 in the men's, in Candioti.

And he returned, who was occupying another position, and returned again to be an assistant coach. Well, now with this AFA women's, Unión, and this enormous challenge they have ahead.

The idea was to continue in the league, but well, I think the timing might not have helped either. And we didn't want the club, let's say, Mitre, the idea was for us to continue, but we didn't want to play that game of what if at some point it overlaps, what do we do? So they decided on another option that was there in the club.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.