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

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

The truth is yes, we're already in the final stretch, there are about three weeks left, maybe four, counting 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 so they can also be on par with those 15 players. We believe that, the way we're going, we'll be able to compete this year in the first division and we aim to stay in the category and make this last over time.

Yes, we lost an assistant coach, Meli is coming back to the field because she also 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 this year the main goal is to stay in the division because there's a big difference between B and A, since most of the teams are 100% professional in that they don't have to do another job, they're dedicated to this, and you can see a bit of a physical difference in terms of the structure of the players—they're athletes, so that's the difference. But I think, and we think, based on what we've seen and analyzed from the teams, that Unión will surely be able to be among the top eight if we fix a couple of 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 set themselves apart, but the difference also comes from the facilities for training, budget issues, and that sort of thing. There's a strong commitment in those clubs.

Yes, honestly, there is a structure completely similar to the men's, but for the women's team, from the sporting 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're preparing to see if that promotion was achieved, and when we got promoted, everyone started arriving—players who wanted to come to Unión and so on. And the teams that also achieved that promotion, which are generally from the interior, would say, "But you can't maintain the structure, the base squad, because they're not qualified," and I would tell them yes, so if everything goes well and stays on track, we'll be the first team to maintain the base from 2023, from C to A, to stay in the division and get a good result—we'll be the first team in history.

No, no, no, today we have a Unión school, girls as young as three who already want to participate, four, five, six. The other day, on Monday and Tuesday, we were in San Jerónimo, in Libertad, doing a preseason, and then on Tuesday afternoon we played a friendly with them, and the little girls, nine, eight years old, were asking the players for autographs and photos, so that's going to keep growing. And since Unión is the only club in the city of Santa Fe participating in AFA, it should be a model, an example, regardless of which club you're a fan of.

Lately, you see more women in the First Division, but yes, there are still male coaches, it's not yet 100% that women are starting to study to be head coaches.

You have to take the course, it's true, because you have to graduate at some point. To be able to work as a coach, you need the course. Yes, they have the A license, it's three years, and now it's also being required.

No, they're different, each license is valid up to a certain age group you can coach. The A license is up to the third division, and then you need the Pro license to coach higher. If you want to coach internationally, like in the Sudamericana or Libertadores, you need the Pro Conmebol, and for that you need to have at least two years of contract at a club.

Our team is the youngest, let's say. The average age is 24.

We are 16 teams, there are two long tournaments of 15 matches each. Starting from the Clausura, the home team changes in the Clausura. There's a spot for the Libertadores, but it could be that this year two spots open up, depending on how it goes. The champion is guaranteed a spot, but if there are two different champions, a super final is played to see who goes to the Libertadores. And if another spot opens up, both champions go to the cup. And relegation is without averages, the bottom two teams in the general table go down.

The idea is for all the matches to be broadcast in the same format as the men's reserve. On the platform, yes. And one or two matches are broadcast on TV.

There are still some issues regarding the players' salaries, which I think should already be handled differently by AFA. Because the salary table that AFA or the Players' Union provides is something that needs to be updated so the girls can dedicate themselves 100% to football.

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

And he's back, he was in another position, and now he's back as an assistant coach. Well, now with this women's AFA team, Unión, and this huge challenge ahead.

The idea was to continue in the league, but I think the timing probably wouldn't 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 there's an overlap, what do we do? So they decided on another option that was available at the club.

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