João Paulo Correia, said that only 15% of coaches in Portugal are women and that sport needs a greater female presence in the "places of power".

In Viana do Castelo, during the official opening ceremony of the forum of the National Association of Football Coaches, the official indicated that the female side of football has contributed to the increase of practitioners, set at 212,000, and defended that the "debate" about the female presence extends "to the places of power", extending the analysis to other modalities.

"Of the 60 modalities with public utility status in Portugal, only 15% of the coaches are women. We are a long way from the European average. Here is a gap that needs to be tackled and corrected. The big goal is for Portugal to reach 2030 within the European average, not only in practitioners, but also in the coaches, in the managers and in the referees", he stressed in his speech.

According to a 2015 report by the European Institute for Gender Equality, the percentage of female coaches in the European Union was already between 20 and 30 percent, and SEJD acknowledged there was "a long way to go" to reduce "inequality of representation in football and sport in general."

João Paulo Correia also considered that the coaching profession is "one of the most demanding" in society, given the "permanent evaluation and scrutiny" of fans or the press and, at the same time, an "added value" for the sporting success of practitioners, extending the analysis beyond football.

"There is no athlete who is a reference or who wins an international competition that does not have behind them a successful coach. Sports success is synonymous with a good coach. Coaches are essential in training, they are essential in the youth club and in the architecture of high sports performance," he said.

The president of the Portuguese Professional Football League, Pedro Proença, stressed that Portuguese coaches has "a capacity for innovation and survival that few have."

"Football in Portugal is an industry of talent and has always lived around the players. The role of the coach has not been valued, but today he already has the recognition that is due to him. We have elite professionals in Portugal", he said.