Pierre BIDEGARAY -I am first Chief Engineer at the City of Pau. In tennis for a very long time, I am President of the departmental tennis committee of the Pyrénées Atlantiques and member of the management committee of the Nouvelle Aquitaine league and of the regional committee of padel. And so for some time now, I have been working as Chairman of the Federal Commission for padel.
But my story around the padel starts a long time ago with an hHistory in significant volunteering: 25 years President of Tc Pau, Honorary President of Tc Pau, General Secretary of Tc Pau and currently Treasurer of Tc Pau. Secretary general then president of the departmental committee 64, Vice president of the former CBBL League.
it's starting to do no? 🙂
I am very honored by this testimony of confidence and I will put all my energy to develop the padel within the FFT, with the assistance of the members of the commission and the permanent staff of the FFT.
It was my League president, Alain MOREAU, who proposed my candidacy knowing that I am invested in the padel at my club level where we have 2 semi-covered courts in 2016, but also at departmental and regional level.
I thank in passing the presidents of the League who validated my candidacy.
I like challenges, it's my engine. I do not appreciate the routine but on the contrary I prefer the design phase, construction of a project. This one is big, but it's even more exciting!
We have 4 themes that are posed on the table:
I reserve them for the executive committee of the FFT which asked us to prepare for mid-October an action plan to develop the padel. On the part of the executive committee, there is a real desire to develop the practice of padel in France and to structure it within the FFT.
Before embarking on what to put in place so that the padel is developing in France, we had to draw up an inventory, even if of course, collectively we have many ideas on the subject. This is why a questionnaire was sent to all clubs affiliated to the FFT or to structures authorized by the FFT which have courts of padel, in order to obtain a complete and updated photograph of the padel in France.
During the first meeting of the committee, we also discussed developments in sports regulations relating to padel which seemed necessary to us from the 2018/2019 season. I cannot give you the details yet because they must be validated by the executive committee at a future meeting. However, the objective which governs these changes is to improve the competition, to develop it by making it more accessible to the greatest number of practitioners (women, seniors +,…). There will also be some adjustments to the tournaments ...
As soon as the executive committee has validated all or part of these proposals, we will keep you informed, so that fans of padel can read it quickly.
The role of the Federation is of course to bring out an elite at the highest level, but while being attentive to the practice of mass competition. Also, whenever necessary the commission padel will propose modifications to the sporting regulations to take into account during the coming years the evolution of the number of participants of padel and the structuring of padel in clubs.
From this observation, we will consider a development strategy for all the axes that I have indicated. We are going to have a very studious summer because the task is huge but oh so exciting!
There will be about 4 meetings a year. The next should take place at the finals of the championship of France in Toulouse.
It is made up of 14 members like all federal commissions, with one representative per League so that the entire French territory is represented in the different themes. It relies on the skills of the “competition” department of the Federal Pole of the FFT. Staff and volunteers show great enthusiasm to develop the padel in France.