On the occasion of the first edition of the A1 France Open, Fabrice Pastor, president of the circuit, granted a interview at Padel Magazine. All topics are covered: A1 Padel and its new horizons, the USA, the new stages, the controversies, the relationship with the FIP and the “ridiculous” wars in the padel.

Consecration in 10 years

I think that the consecration will be in 10 years when we will be in all the countries of the world.

But I believe that this year, the explosion of A1 Padel is done on many levels and sectors. And of course we arrive in the United States. We will be present in New York, Miami and a third city.

We are only crossing thresholds. The dream is to take the padel in the world through the best circuit that is A1 Padel and we will continue to work. We hope to arrive in 2024 in Asia.

The American dream

Concerning the United States, I believe that we are multiplying by 10 what we are already doing in Europe. I think it's going to be a start once again on a huge country where consumption is king.

We will manage to do something exceptional. We have some nice surprises!

Players delighted by the A1 Padel

We are workers. This circuit, I believe, is a delight for the players.

We have already signed 7 more players in Sevilla and 5 players here. In addition, the contracts that we sign give players the possibility of having between 3 and 4 months free. This means they can play elsewhere.

The player is playing padel, makes it his profession and exercises it very well. Incidentally, I would like to congratulate Augsburger and Libaak for playing in the final (editor's note. at the WPT La Rioja Open).

A1 padel Fabrice pastor
A1 padel Fabrice pastor

People in the FIP are not “serious”

I am a federative person. The Federations are very important.

To have and to be with an International Federation of Padel, Its very important. But the people who run it are rug salesmen. It's amazing what's going on in this Federation. We even hear the President (Luigi Carraro) in an audio explaining things. (Editor’s note. He would have bought votes for his election as President of the FIP. An article “Corruption in the padel international” is online via thesite Padel Inside on this theme. We have attempted to contact the FIP without success.)

The FIP tried again to ban a stage in Venezuela in Caracas (editor's note. of the Fabrice Pastor Cup). How can a Federation want the cancellation of a stage when it is supposed to want to increase it?

Unify a global ranking

We have to reach an agreement in order to unify the ranking and that there is above all a world ranking.

Because today, when we talk about the best players in the world, we are actually talking about the best players on one circuit or the best players on another circuit.

Obviously for me, the best players in the world are my number 1, it's the same for the others and it's completely normal.

But we can no longer talk about the best players in the world, it's over! In the end, you have to make it as simple as possible for the players. It's the players that count, and we have to work for them, not for us.

A promising youth

I believe that in 2024, we will perhaps reach 26 A1 tournaments Padel. The Fabrice Pastor Cup is something different, with 18 tournaments this year.

There were still players who, after winning the Fabrice Pastor Cup, entered the Master table in Seville. I'm thinking of Guiral and Urzola who still beat Britos and Maxi Sanchez Blasco.

There are also other nuggets like Santi Pineda, Leo Yob, Luciano Puppo...

I see a lot of important players who additionally signed with A1 Padel and for us it is an honor and a pleasure.

We are working very hard so that in 2024 there will be Asia. There we return to the United States with 3 stages, the year after I think we will have 6. We will perhaps add Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles. So already in 2024, we will have 6 stages in the United States.

Le padel to conquer Africa

We are a group of associates who created “Africa Padel”. Currently, there are already 67 pitches. We plan to end the year with more than 100 pitches. We have clubs in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town. It is therefore a very important company that is growing the sport in South Africa.

And now, we are studying by the end of this year for next year, the opening of clubs in other African countries because it is a license that pleases and that it can be a very good product to grow the padel on the African continent.

Regarding the clubs that are already set up, there are 4 to 8 pitches and more in very beautiful places strategically speaking. It works incredibly well and we have other projects.

Team Padel May

Team Padel Magazine tries to offer you since 2013 the best of padel, but also surveys, analyzes to try to understand the world of padel. From the game to the politics of our sport, Padel Magazine is at your service.

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