In France, we can not give precise figures concerning the number of pitches and practitioners, because only the approved pitches are taken into account by the FFT and only the practitioners in homologated competitions can be recognized.

During the interview with Victor, we learned that there previously existed a National League of padel. When we do research on this, we don't find information that this National League no longer exists. The FFT took over the padel under its fold in 2014. It is therefore difficult to highlight the role of this National League, which seems to be divided into two poles; North and South. According to Victor, it would have been integrated into the FFT: “ It no longer exists. It was integrated into the Tennis Federation. But the padel has been for decades, since it existed in France, it was independent. »[1]

The French Tennis Federation, for its part, allows the padel to be able to develop. She has a certain know-how, she who deals with the second sport in France and the first individual sport. It also has a strong network of clubs and leagues. This indeed makes it easier to develop the padel in the clubs affiliated via the Leagues, in particular for the allocation of subsidies and project support.

For the moment, the padel is over-represented by the private side. For example in Hauts-de-France, we have seen in section 2.3.5. of the exploratory phase that almost 80% of the land belongs to a private structure. The FFT has the real desire to catch up with the associations. François also supported this point : “I think so, with uh, the French Tennis Federation which for the moment is rough, but which for the moment really has the will to put in place a plan to boost the padel in France, and that the padel is no longer just supported by private structures, but that it also goes through the associative side, the tennis clubs affiliated to the FFT ”[2], before talking about a double ambition already highlighted during the exploratory phase "So yeah, as you said, the federation has this double ambition to popularize and democratize the padel in France to be able to offer a new activity to its members, but at the same time to mitigate this decline in members which has been taking place for several years. The numbers are not in free fall, but each year, the French Tennis Federation loses a certain number of licensees. "[3]

In France, the offer padel is very heterogeneous geographically.

In summary, we therefore see that in France the padel is for the moment distributed unequally on the territory, and that the offer is currently represented largely by the private side that the associative side.

[1] Page 85: Victor interview

[2] Page 107: interview with Brice and Jean

[3] Page 109: interview with Brice and Jean

Pierre Lemonnier

Pierre studied STAPS, and validated a master's degree in sports management, after studying in Reims, Frankfurt and Lille. I discovered the padel in 2014 during my Erasmus year in Frankfurt thanks to a Spanish friend. Damn it is good padel !

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