Coaches open Warsaw discussions

The recent past and future football trends are occupying the minds of Europe's national team coaches at a key UEFA gathering in Warsaw.

World Cup review
Coaches, their assistants, technical directors and coach education directors from Europe's 52 national associations began the fifth UEFA Conference for European National Coaches in the Polish capital on Monday with a review of the summer's FIFA World Cup in Korea/Japan.

Tactical and technical trends
The football world's two major tournaments - the World Cup and UEFA European Championship - are coming under the spotlight at the event in Warsaw. The coaches are discussing issues such as tactical and technical trends, refereeing developments, and the future evolution of the world and European game at the highest level.

UEFA duty
"As the umbrella organisation of European football, UEFA considers it as its duty to bring you all together after a major event such as the World Cup, and to give you the opportunity to exchange views at a European level," said UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner. "As national coaches, your work and opinions are important to us. National-team football remains an important part of top-level football."

Polish presence
The European national team coaches are joined in Warsaw by representatives of FIFA, the world game's governing body, other continental confederations and the coaches of all of Poland's top-division clubs, as well as other past and present members of the Polish technical community.

Great opportunity
"This is a great opportunity for Poland's coaches to listen and learn from famous and experienced colleagues," said Polish Football Federation president Michal Listkiewicz. "I'm convinced that Poland can gain a lot from this conference."

World Cup presentations
During the conference, several coaches will also be giving their colleagues a personal view of their experiences at the World Cup. Today's items included presentations involving the German duo Rudi Völler and Michael Skibbe, who took their team to the runners-up position in the Far East, and Senol Günes, who coached Turkey to third place.

Exceptional adventures
The German and Turkish coaches spoke about their preparations, key moments and players, training, and lessons learned from their exceptional adventures in world football's most prestigious competition.

Collina viewpoint
Italian referee Pierluigi Collina, who took charge of the World Cup final between Brazil and Germany in Yokahama, is also attending the conference to discuss current refereeing topics with the coaches, and he will be giving his viewpoint about the referee's role in the modern game.

Minute's silence
Before the start of the conference, those present observed a minute's silence in memory of the former Ukraine coach Valeriy Lobanovskiy, and the general secretary of the Union of European Football Coaches, Lothar Meurer, who both passed away recently.