Hubert Picquier: “99% of the subsidies can go to padel”| Padel Magazine

Hubert PICQUIER is a member of the Executive Committee of the French Tennis Federation in charge of clubs and equipment. He is also President of the CCPF (TFS Suppliers and Suppliers Selection Committee).

For a few weeks now, he has been responsible for the development of the padel in France. For this, he launched an audit around the padel, whose objective is to " strongly develop the padel on national territory ".

Very invested, Hubert PICQUIER answers frankly and sends out a clear message: " We have clearly changed the tempo, Tennis and Padel are on a par with our club development policy and practice »

An adventure that starts in a sport booming?

Indeed the padel is developing and we must structure its development.

It is for this reason that I wished in the framework of my mission not to dissociate the development to the competition. Later, maybe, but not today.

The President of the Federation, Bernard GUIDICELLI, absolutely wishes to promote its development and he has made it clear to me in my mission letter. I intend to go all out, like all my missions at the FFT, because we feel a strong expectation on the ground. So we will start right now. Even though the work has already begun ...

As part of my missions, I chair the Evaluation Committee, which awards grants for club development projects around equipment. From the 1^er October 2017, the Federation handled 134 projects by allocating € 4M in aid to clubs allowing the financing of € 54M of work. Of these 134 projects, it is important to note that the Federation provided assistance to 26 structures of padel. It's quite consistent ...

But we have private clubs that have associations and complain about being forgotten ...

Nobody will be forgotten ... But we must obey rules and texts.

Le padel is managed by two types of structures. The association and the commercial entity. In order to allow the latter to approve tournaments and to register teams in federal competitions, they may have the status of authorized structures, affiliated to the FFT, but they remain commercial.

Therefore, it is not possible for a Federation, League or Committee to pay him a grant, unlike a club run by an association law 1901.

It is for this reason and in order not to penalize the development of padel, that the FFT, wishes to back up to the commercial structures an associative club, managed by statutes law 1901. This imposes to set up an office, to organize a general assembly and to agree with the owner of the installations.

A private club can become empowered ...

We allow private structures to be empowered today and so they can propose homologous competitions, federal, related to the FFT, but it does not allow them to get help.

Tennis and padel are sports treated equally?

I never said there would be part of the tennis aids, part of the padel. Maybe in 2019 99% of the grants will go to the padel. Who can know? In any case the FFT does not put any barrier.

If you padel shows development, this is the basic rule, and if we observe that the padel is developing much more than in tennis, so we will subsidize the padel than tennis.

Since October 1st, we have shown that the FFT was able to financially help clubs. In 10 months, we have subsidized nearly 4 million euros. This generated 54 million jobs in the field. Out of the 134 cases on which we worked, 26 cases concern associations of padel. It's huge.

To stay in the numbers and to realize the enormous work carried out by the FFT, the average aid of a club in 2016 was 2.285 €. In 2017, we went to € 23.845. Be careful, this is an average help. Tennis and padel are treated equally and the notion of development is essential in obtaining this aid.

How to get help?

If you can demonstrate that such a purchase will allow the activity to develop padel, you will be helped. The League Development Advisor will analyze the request. We offer club and practice development assistance.

If the club is able to demonstrate through a relatively simple document that you will be able to get from your league, that your investment will develop the practice, chances are you have financial support from the FFT.

If the club (municipal or private club through an association law 1901) submits a request for assistance to the development of clubs and practice by demonstrating that this investment allows an increase in the number of licensees and participates in the development of the club, there the club will be helped.

On the training part, a DE padel could be imagined?

Our goal is to go very fast. For now the DE Padel, is not on the agenda.

It's very complicated and we do not have all the cards in hand. This part is managed by the Ministry of Sports.

But we have implemented a module padel for DE tennis. Is it sufficient ? We are just seeing that. In general, a teacher of padel is a tennis teacher, so with our module padel for DE tennis, it's already not bad. We can offer a supplement ... To see.

But, in 10 or 15 years, we can imagine that the players come from padel and have no tennis background. This is why we must work now on the establishment of a training padel.

But you have to live with the times, for now, the best players in padel come from tennis.

Some players from padel and who do not have a tennis background, would like to teach in France. What to do when you don't have an ED?

To this day it is not possible. This is a question for the departments concerned. This part does not really depend on us. If an organization is to find, we will make our contribution. We will move forward.

A tip to give to no DE for now?

Before giving any advice, I remind you that they can not teach. Now, a possibility is offered to this population with the CQP. It allows framed and regulated teaching, interesting for our clubs. The Development Consultants of our Leagues are at the service of clubs to assist them in this process.

Will the FFT bring a message to the Ministry on training?

In fact, we are working on it. Once our audit is done and analyzed next October, we will address the Ministry and tell them the anomalies to correct when it is their responsibility as the training part. I am aware of the problem that there is in this sector, but the French Tennis Federation can not do much without the Ministry on this subject.

But we are also going to carry a clear message concerning the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Already, to offer this sport as a demonstration sport, but we could even go further… These are discussions that we must have with the Minister of Sports, Laura Flessel .

French internationals from padel, a CNE padel ?

Here too, this is a subject that we will be discussing next October after the audit carried out by the FFT. But The Internationals padel from France are among the subjects to be dealt with.

Also set up a CNE of padel is also a theme that we tackle. Clubs of padel have already been requested and we will see later.

What is certain is that we want to build a big family of padel, this is why we will come back to you next October to provide an update on the audit carried out by the FFT. Proposals will be issued and a plan padel will then be proposed.

Compared to the different tournaments of padel, circuits, stage of World Padel Tour at Casa padel, will the FFT get involved?

I do not know what she will do, but she will necessarily do differently than she has done so far.

Interview by Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.