Malta FA technical projects in focus during AIAC webinar

The ongoing projects of the Malta FA Technical Centre came under the spotlight on Monday as Devis Mangia, the Head Coach of the National Teams, and Luca Pagani, the national team’s fitness coach, delivered a presentation during a national webinar organised by AIAC – Associazione Italiana Allenatori Calcio. AIAC is the national association representing the Italian football coaches.  At Monday’s webinar, hosted on MyAIAC, the Association’s online platform, Mangia spoke about the vision and strategy of the Technical Centre, focusing on the introduction of a unified football philosophy for all the national teams, from the Under-15s through to the senior squad. The Malta coach, who had a successful spell in charge of the Italy Under-21 team between 2012 and 2013, highlighted the activities related to all national selections as well as the coaching principles underpinning this holistic approach which is essential to achieve a unified football philosophy. Other topics addressed by Mangia and Pagani during the webinar included the coaching set-up of the national team, and the integration of the work of the different departments within the Malta FA Technical Centre, namely coaching, performance, scouting and match analysis, emphasising the importance of planning for the training sessions and the use of the data and insights generated by the match analysis department. Since his appointment as Head Coach of the National Teams in December 2019, Mangia has overseen an overhaul of the technical sector in sync with the goals and objectives of the Malta FA Strategy for Maltese football to raise the standards of the national teams at all levels, enhance youth development and further consolidate the coach education sector. Experienced coach Mario Beretta was the moderator of Monday’s AIAC well-attended webinar which also featured the participation of Luigi Febbrari, the fitness coach of the Albanian national team.