The qualifications of the Europe zone for the World Cup which take place this weekend begin in a rather surprising way. In effect, Sweden and Portugal are in the same group.
While these two nations are made up of professional players from the World Padel Tour, Premier Padel and the APT Padel Tour and that there is no doubt that they should have met directly in Dubai for the final stages, bad luck got involved and perhaps let's say a touch of “stupidity”.
Indeed, in these gentlemen's qualifications, the first three nations will fly away for the final phases of the world championships of padel 2022. On paper, Portugal and Sweden are unquestionably the two strongest nations in these qualifiers and they both deserved to have their place in the Emirates.
The two countries are indeed seeking the top 5/6 in the world, which is to say the level of these two nations. Given the talent found in their teams, they should have been protected in one way or another.
But since these two nations have not played the previous world for non-sporting reasons, players and fans will still have to pay the pots of the past.
Direct consequence for the French team: one competitor less for the last four of the next world championships. But players and fans would certainly have preferred to have all the best nations at the start of these final stages.
In this game, everyone loses: