A real desire to develop padel?

As seen previously, the French Tennis Federation absorbed beach tennis and padel respectively in 2008 and 2014.

This desire to integrate these new sports therefore allows the FFT to expand its offer by diversifying and possibly addressing a new target or at least a target that is running out of steam.

The Federation has put in place different ways to develop these sports in France, however, it should be noted that their growth is difficult to see.

Limited financial capacity

Indeed, despite the development of championships organized by the FFT for these two sports, the organization is unable to finance them. Very few budgets are allocated to these sports, especially with the strong investment committed by the FFT for the renovation and improvement of the new Rolland Garros. As indicated by Héloïse Clavel in charge of new sports practices at the Federation « A budget of 3 million euros has been requested for the development of Beach Tennis and Padel, only 1 million has been released Which effectively limits the construction of very expensive installations.

Thus, the budget has been revised downward which implies the slowdown in the development of these sports.

The opinion of the mixed tennis clubs

When one is interested in the opinion of a director of a classical tennis club, the answer is unequivocal "Bof course develop other forms of sport Padel or Beach would not be uninteresting, but the financial consequences make for the moment these activities very difficult to implement and inopportune "Mr. Barbe, director of the Conflans Tennis Club (700 members).

Brake ?

On the other hand, despite the important support for the development of these sports in France, the FFT brings many brakes especially with regard to state diplomas, mandatory to teach the practice of tennis.

The disadvantage is that a player experienced in Beach Tennis for example can not teach this discipline without obtaining the ED. What would be more consistent according to Frederic Pamart, Beach Tennis player in Reunion would be « to integrate in the training of a Beach Tennis module and to find a scale allowing the good players of Beach Tennis to have an equivalence at level 15 of tennis to be able to become DE ».

[toggle title = ”Author: Alexandre BRUZAUD,” state = ”open”] Graduated with a Master's degree (specialization in sports marketing and management) at ISC Paris Business School. On a permanent contract since the end of my studies at Adidas France as sales manager in charge of the Paris / North region. Passionate about sport, I discovered and joined the Padel during my Erasmus in 2013 in Spain. [/ toggle]

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.