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

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

Yes, indeed, we are already in the final stage, with about three weeks left, four if you 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 be on par with those 15 players. We believe that with the path we're on, we will be able to compete in the first division this year and maintain the category, ensuring 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 back to a player.

No, I think this year the main goal 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 work 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 bit 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 equipment 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 coming, players wanted to join Unión, and the teams that also achieved that promotion, generally from the interior, would say you can't maintain the structure that the base played because they aren't trained, and I would say yes, so if everything goes well, we will be the first team to maintain the base from 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 girls, photos, so that's going to grow, 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 you support.

Lately, you see more women in the First Division, but yes, there are male coaches, it's not yet 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 up to a certain age you can coach, the A is up to the third division, and then you need the approval to coach, and if you want to coach internationally like in the Sudamericana, Libertadores, you need the Proconmebol, 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. Starting with 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 share the cup. And the relegation is without average, the last two teams in the general table are relegated.

The idea is for all matches to be televised 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 think is something that needs to be different from AFA as well. 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 soccer.

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. 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 where 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.