Return on the interview of Philippe Cerfont, the President of the European Federation of Padel (FEPA) and the new President of the Belgian Federation, which took place on Friday 22 May in the “Face-to-Face” live on Instagram.

  • Regarding the end of confinement for Belgian padel

We have worked on a plan to restart the padel activity. From May 4, authorization to play with two people. Then from May 18, authorization to practice padel in doubles, with a whole series of precautions. There is still a lot of work to do in terms of reorganization. If the situation does not worsen by then, we will start the competitions again at the beginning of August. At the interclub level, we would restart around August 15 or the beginning of September.

  • Regarding the differences between European countries regarding the resumption of padel

States are sovereign with regard to their health policies and the measures they want to apply or not. In Belgium, there are general principles to be applied to all sports. These measures, which are intended to be relatively simple, are ultimately complicated when they have to be adapted for each sport. Compared to tennis, there is this problem of windows and fencing in padel. It is quite difficult to completely disinfect a padel court...

Sweden, for example, did not follow the recommendations, there was no confinement, and in the end they were perhaps not worse off. They just banned certain competitions, especially for seniors.

FEPA has shared the different protocols, but there is not really an interlocutor at European level who would be able to impose measures.

  • On the birth of FEPA

The initiative for the creation of FEPA fell to Spain and Portugal, during the European Championship which took place in 2017, these two countries wanted the creation of a European federation. Daniel Patti, President of the FIP at the time said that it was not a bad idea but that it was not necessary to create a parallel association to the FIP, which already had a lot of work and which thought of commissioning continental federations . The FIP wanted to maintain a certain leadership.

Given that the FIP was not too much in the spirit of the EPA at the time, which became FEPA, so we continued to meet with the European countries, because the reality of European padel is very different from what we can see in South America for example.

  • On FEPA issues

In Europe we are on an ascending curve, with a lot of growth. We have to help each other because some countries are extremely mature like Spain and Portugal, then other countries that come far behind like Italy, France, Belgium, Sweden. We want to share good practices and experiences with each other. And also organize European championships, refereeing courses, refereeing courses at European level.

  • On the reasons that led to a “war” between FEPA and FIP and to two European padel championships

We have made a tremendous effort to try to find common ground with the FIP regarding the European Championships. We didn't get there, everyone regretted it with us. The FIP struggled to organize European championships which went well in Rome. But we too have the skills for this, we are also recognized by a certain number of countries and federations.

When it came to organizing the first European Championships, we discussed a whole series of things with the FIP. The FIP did not want to recognize the FEPA, because in the statutes there are a certain number of things: all new federations must do a training course for a certain period, it is quite complex. Even if the FIP and its president have ideas relatively close to ours concerning the development of padel, at a given moment we are in opposition. It is almost a conflict of persons. The FIP does not want to lose its territory.

Behind that, at FEPA we have 17 member countries and soon surely more with the emergence of Eastern European countries. There is a spirit of mutual aid between the countries.

  • How to prevent this situation from happening again?

There will soon be elections to the FIP at the end of the year. I think the mistake is that the FIP board is made up of administrators who are very opposed to FEPA trends. What is happening today at the FIP level is almost a black box, there are meetings of the Board of Directors but there is relatively little communication.

I think people have to talk to each other and people will change at some point. I am a supporter of dialogue, transparency and I regret that people are unable to find agreements for relatively simple problems. We have reached out more than once to the FIP, for the moment the dialogue is at a standstill, it is not the end of the world, they do not have the means of ATP.

  • Regarding relations with the WPT

The FIP has made a unified classification with the World Padel Tour. We wanted to collaborate with the WPT but they refused, with I think pressure behind from the FIP, which wants to keep this privileged relationship. These two institutions coexist, so much the better. If we put the FEPA aside, this unified ranking between countries is a very good thing, it makes padel progress.

For our part, we are going to organize FEPA tournaments, small, large, and we do not prevent anyone from doing tournaments of the FIP, the APT, the World Padel Tour or any organization.

 

Find the + / Internet users' questions / INSIDE in the podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgV_kJLt_e4

Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!

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