Lionel Ollinger, the current member of the Superior Council of Tennis and president of the Grand-Est league, looks back on his adventure in the padel. The former President of the Lorraine League believed in padel from the start of his adventure within the FFT. This actor of padel French tells us.

When did you invest in the padel ?

I embarked on the padel when the FFT recovered the padel during the first semester of 2014. When she told us to take care of it, I took this new sport head-on. But until then, I did not know the sport. When the development of padel became a mission of the FFT, I quickly became interested in watching videos and playing.

Yet until 2016, there was no padel in Lorraine?

We even had to wait until 2017 to obtain our two padel outdoor in the League center. We were ahead of all the other leagues. We had put a lot of padel at the Tennis Club de Moulins Les Metz also a year earlier, notably during the Waves Open, the international ladies tennis tournament. But the field could not stay at the club. Moulins-les-Metz now owns its land.

When I was President of the Lorraine League, we had no padel. On the other hand, I have the chance to go regularly to Fuerteventura, an island in the Canaries, where the padel is indeed present. Normal, this is Spain!

And I was able to discover the atmosphere around the padel. At first, it's not easy to play padel with such good players in Spain. But I quickly took a liking to this sport and the padel came at a time in my life when it wasn't obvious on a personal level.

What has the Lorraine League done to boost the padel ?

 At the time I was only able to put 2 padel. I had to take my pilgrim's staff because unfortunately I was alone enough to believe in padel.

With the two fields of padel at the League Center. We can say that it was already a victory, we were almost 2 years ahead of the current policy implemented by the FFT with its subsidies.

In the Lorraine League, I remember that there were few people who knew how to play padel. So I gave of my person both literally and figuratively. I started to play, to show how we could play padel. I have also put many tennis players in the padel.

What can be said about today's policy implemented by the FFT?

Today, the FFT grants padel  2 courts of padel. This is a very good thing for the padel in France. We were finally 2 years ahead. What would be needed would be to be able to cover them. It would be interesting to be able to extend this grant to those who have taken the lead ...

But the Lorraine league has also and paradoxically perhaps lost 2 years. Because I think we could have done more in 2017 and 2018. Today, we are part of the Grand-Est league. It is a great chance, because we are carried by Alsace very active in the padel for some time. This has given the whole region a boost. Alsatian clubs have evolved faster than Lorraine clubs.

Lorraine is getting organized ...

Club 4PADEL in Metz offers 3 padel indoor. This is a very good thing for the region which needed it. This structure gave a real boost to Metz. With 3 covered courts, it revives the padel In the region. We signed an agreement last week with 4PADEL. The issue is that tennis licensees can have privileged conditions to go and play tennis. padel and that we can develop the padel.

We are also going to implement a training policy padel for clubs in the league. There will be a tournament schedule for padel soon. Clubs will also be helped when they want to invest in the padel. There is a very good dynamic.

But be careful not to pit the association against the market sector. We must not take the market sector as a competitor of the associative sector. The walking sector brings a lot of comfort, high services and it clearly brings an impetus to the padel. Its very important. The cost may be greater there, but the infrastructure is not the same.

The club padel de Moulins-les-Metz is certainly the main provider of 4PADEL Metz. For the moment in any case, we see a real complementarity.

More personally, you yourself are a padel

Indeed, as explained earlier, I embarked on the padel, the day the FFT joined the padel in its statutes. I was semi-finalist of the regional phases of the French championships of padel 2 years ago. I was even top 500 French. I play at least once a week at padel. I'm going to do a tournament of padel in February.

You also play tennis, sometimes you have to make a choice?

Unfortunately, I do not have time to do everything. And even if I play tennis (current 15/1), I tend to go and play padel. I'm really a fan of it and there is a really good, very motivating atmosphere.

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.

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