Alain Conte, San Marino: “The level of Serie B has risen”
After a brief separation, Alain Conte returned to the head of the San Marino Academy in the women’s Serie B championship
After a short separation, Alain Conte is back at the helm of the San Marino Academy in the women’s Serie B championship. The Ravenna coach had led the team to the double jump from Serie C to Serie A, leading the team even in the top flight and missing salvation only on the last day. Now, with the girls in the blue jersey, he is experiencing a championship with a good profile, with the aim of playing for the upper echelons until the end of the season.
Mister, after a brief separation, you are back at the helm of the Academy. How do you rate your league so far?
“At the moment we are fifth: at the beginning, the ambition was to make a top championship but the year following a relegation is always difficult to interpret. When I rejoined the team I found the girls a little down in the dumps, because they were in a lower ranking position than their expectations. Now the important thing is to stay in the running with the leaders until the end of the season ”.
With a single promotion, the level of Serie B has risen further, although the gap from Serie A is still wide.
“Serie A was something sensational, too bad the season was damaged by Covid because we would have enjoyed it in a different way with the public. Now in Serie B we see that the teams are growing: just think of the fact that Riozzese is eliminating Sassuolo from the Italian Cup; we too, despite having lost 3-0 against Inter, played evenly for at least a half time, missing the penalty of the 0-0 lead at the end of the first half. The single promotion forces you to fight every day and I have seen that there are excellent players in all the teams ”.
So how do you go about recruiting?
“We have a school-related business, with some of the coaches following projects. Beyond that, we scout men’s societies and try to catch those girls who, at some point, can’t play with boys anymore, trying to get ahead of our competitors. Now we have all the teams up to under 8, so we have all the categories and from this point of view I would say that we are working well “.
For some time we have been talking about professionalism in women’s football. How soon do you think the transition from amateurism will take place?
“This is a goal to be achieved, but it has to be done in the right way. There are privileges and advantages, of course, but small provincial-sized companies risk a lot. In the first place, it is the different realities that have to consolidate, before moving on to the next level. We are ahead of others, but in a professional club we need to include many professional figures, at the managerial level, who are not yet in women’s football. The transition should not be done overnight but you have to get to the goal slowly. We simply think of the fact that Serie B, without television rights, would pay a much greater difficulty than the top flight ”.
It almost seems that playing in the cadeteria is more difficult than in Serie A.
“Not on a technical level, but for all other factors, yes. Economically we do not have the means of the superior series, because there are no TV rights. In addition, we have more teams, therefore more away even on a national scale such as Sassari, Palermo, Bari. Women’s football is a successful movement: precisely for this reason, we must avoid that you follow steps longer than the leg as long as we still have companies around casere. , the transition to professionalism must arrive at