French Interleague U12 Championships 2026: the future of French padel takes to the court in Cabriès

This is the first major event of the 2026 French Youth Championships. Starting Saturday, August 15th, 14 Leagues will compete in the WinWin tournament. Padel Cabriès during the French Interleague U12 Championships. A revamped competition this season, with mixed teams composed of two boys' pairs and one girls' pair. The group stages begin tomorrow, followed by the placement matches and the final scheduled for Monday, August 17th. One year after the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur League's victory, who will succeed PACA?

French padel is calling on its next generation. 15 at 17 August 2026 , the WinWin Padel Cabriès , in the Bouches-du-Rhône, hosts the French Interleague U12 Championships , first stage of the major sequence of French Youth Championships which will continue until August 23 with the U14, U16 then U18.

For these U12s, the principle is different: no traditional paired table, but a competition between the selections of the French Leagues .

And the 2026 edition marks a real evolution in the organization of the French Youth Championships.

A new U12 formula in 2026

This is one of the main new features to remember.

The FFT indicates that the French Interleague Championships are now reserved for U12s , while the U14s switch to the French Pairs Championships, like the U16s and U18s.

Regulation 2026 thus provides a single U12 event , with a mixed composition for each regional selection:

two pairs of boys + one pair of girls.

The Championships are open to female and male players aged from 9 to 12 years that is, the young people born between 2014 and 2017 inclusive of French nationality. They must be licensed with the FFT – license Padel or Multi-Raquettes – and attached to a club in the League they represent.

The national competition takes place in a single phase, from August 15 to 17 in Cabriès.

14 Leagues vying for the title

The platform will be particularly wide since 14 Leagues are involved:

Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Grand Est, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, La Réunion, Normandie, Centre-Val de Loire, Pays de la Loire, Bretagne, Corse and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

To construct the groups, the Leagues were divided into four pots.

The first four are:

1. Occitan
2. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
3. Grand Est
4. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

The second hat gathers Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Réunion , while Normandy, Centre-Val de Loire, Pays de la Loire and Brittany make up the third. Corsica and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté complete the plateau.

Four groups to kick off the competition

The draw offers four groups:

Poule A	Poule B	Hen C	Hen D
Occitanie	PACA	Grand East	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Nouvelle Aquitaine	Réunion	Hauts-de-France	Ile-de-France
Pays de la Loire	Normandy	Britain	Centre-Val de Loire
	Corsica	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

With two groups of three teams and two groups of four, the first day will already be important to determine the positions before the rest of the competition.

Interleague Pools U12 Cabries 2026 Download

Starting Saturday at 10 a.m. on the Cabriès slopes

No long observation period: the competition will begin Saturday morning at 10 a.m. .

The published program includes six tracks used simultaneously: tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 .

Among the first scheduled matches, we will find in particular PACA – Normandy, La Réunion – Corsica, Hauts-de-France – Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Grand Est – Brittany, Nouvelle-Aquitaine – Pays de la Loire and Île-de-France – Centre-Val de Loire .

The matches will continue one after the other before another major rotation scheduled to begin from 16 hours .

The team format should give a special tone to these U12s: unlike a classic competition where a pair only plays for itself, each result here contributes directly to the journey of an entire League.

Saturday Program Download

PACA symbolically puts its title on the line

To understand the 2026 edition, we need to revisit an important feature: The format has changed compared to 2025 .

The FFT reminds us that in 2025, the French Interleague Youth Championships took place at Country Club Padel from Aix-en-Provence and The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur League had prevailed. .

But at that time it was a question of the Interleague U14 The 2025 calendar confirms that this competition had been organized from 18 at 20 August 2025 , before the French U16 and then U18 Championships.

Therefore, we need to be precise: PACA is indeed the League holding the title of Interleague Youth, but the 2026 trophy will be awarded in a new U12 configuration.

Therefore, we are not comparing two exactly identical competitions.

French U14 Youth Championships: PACA beats Occitanie and wins the U14 title!

In 2025, PACA dominated Occitanie in the final

The parallel remains interesting, however, since the last edition of the Interleagues had already pitted several of the Leagues against each other that we will find this weekend in Cabriès.

In 2025, PACA had beaten Occitanie in the final thus winning the national title.

One year later, the two Leagues have indeed reached the top two spots in the pots for the 2026 edition: Occitanie No. 1 and PACA No. 2 .

Therefore, they will not be able to meet during the first phase since they have been placed in groups A and B respectively.

PACA will evolve with Reunion Island, Normandy and Corsica while Occitanie will have to rid itself of New Aquitaine and Pays de la Loire .

The scenario of a new confrontation between the two Leagues later in the competition is therefore not impossible, even if this new U12 generation obviously reshuffles all the cards.

An important competition to identify the next generation

Beyond the result, these Interleague tournaments have another function: to allow the best young players from different territories to compete against each other very early on.

This is precisely the logic behind the FFT's youth policy, which also has the National Youth Tournaments (TNJ) and a final Masters. The Federation presents this circuit, created in 2023, as a way to bring together the best young French players during the season.

The Interleagues bring an additional dimension: regional representation and team competition.

À 9, 10, 11 or 12 years old , some of the players present in Cabriès will therefore experience their first major national competition under the colours of their League.

Girls occupy a specific place in the new formula

The composition of the teams also deserves to be highlighted.

Each League must present one pair of women's shoes for every two pairs of men's shoes .

The creation of this mixed event allows young girls and boys to contribute together to the ranking of their regional selection.

An interesting choice at a time when the development of the female talent pool is one of the challenges of French padel.

And unlike the U14, U16 and U18 categories, which will later award separate French championship titles for pairs, the U12s therefore compete for a single collective title of French Interleague Champion .

The final is on Monday, August 17th.

After the group stage and the various matches of the competition, the verdict will be announced. monday 17 august .

The U12 final will be broadcast live , the first of four final days scheduled during this major sequence in Cabriès.

It will also kick off a particularly busy week:

August 17: U12 Interleague Final
August 19: U14 finals
August 21: U16 finals
August 23: U18 finals

The U12s will therefore have the honor of opening and awarding the first national title of these 2026 French Youth Championships .

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.