Women's national team coaches summit

The memories of a magnificent UEFA Women’s EURO 2013 remain fresh in the memory – and this week, the tournament in Sweden returns to the spotlight at the second UEFA Women’s National Team Coaches’ Conference at the House of European Football in Nyon.

Women’s national coaches and other national association elite technicians in the women's game; the coaches of last season’s UEFA Women's Champions League semi-finalists; the chairwoman and vice-chairwomen of the UEFA Women#s Football Committee – Karen Espelund (Norway) and Susanne Erlandsson (Sweden), Hannelore Ratzeburg (Germany) and Sheila Begbie (Scotland) respectively, and the world football body FIFA and UEFA's sister continental confederations will be gathering at UEFA headquarters over two days to discuss and review the events of last July, when Germany captured their sixth successive European title after a final round of superlatives that took women's football to new heights.

Some brilliant football was on display, highlighting the continuing advances of the women's game from a technical and tactical point of view. Added to this was high media interest, record TV viewing figures, increased attendances and widespread interest from fans – all signalling another major breakthrough for women’s football.

The opening day will feature an in-depth interview with Germany coach Silvia Neid, who has featured in all of her country's eight European championship triumphs as a player, assistant or head coach, and who will be sharing insights into the coaching visions which have brought her two European titles as a coach.

Technically, the UEFA EURO Women's 2013 tournament marked a new departure in the quality of the elite women’s game, and the technical observers who followed the matches in Sweden – Jarmo Matikainen, Anne Noé, Béatrice von Siebenthal and Anna Signeul – will be leading the conference through the technical report that they have drawn up, with key emphasis on tactical analyses, goalscoring, goalkeeping and how the technical team came to choose their Team of the Tournament. In addition, a coaches' forum will examine the trends and talking points which emerged from the summer's action.

Allied to technical and tactical developments is the growing emphasis on fitness and the proper physical preparation for playing at the highest women's level, and fitness experts Professor Peter Krustrup (Denmark) and Naomi Datson (England) will join Italy coach Antonio Cabrini for an examination of physical preparation before and during UEFA Women's EURO 2013.

Coaches in the elite women's game now face greater pressures than before, and the former England coach Hope Powell will give the conference the benefit of her vast experience as she addresses the twin topics of leadership and pressure. The eminent Swedish former player and current national coach Pia Sundhage and an 'external voice'at the conference, former footballer, best-selling author and performance development expert Rasmus Ankersen, will also be making presentations in Nyon.

In addition to presentations and on-stage interview sessions, the participants will split into discussion groups to deliberate on the way forward for women's football at both national-team and club levels, and the conference will close with an analysis of UEFA's top women's competitions at the present time, and the ways in which they can develop in the future.