Pierre Doumayron, President of the Midi-Pyrénées league and Vice-President of the FFT in charge of Federal Gatherings, looks back on his adventure in the padel and the ups and downs in his league.

Padel Magazine - the padel explodes in your league. How do you explain it?

Pierre Doumayron - It was not at all an easy road, since the padel in our league has a story. Already in the 90s, the padel had taken its marks. We expected a lot moreover. Toulouse had hosted the world championships of padel and we believed the emancipation of padel close. Yet the padel quickly fell like a souffle. No more projects or so few, no more real prospects.

Then, when the FFT decided to integrate the padel in its statutes, we took the leap to push the padel to develop in our league and we can see today a tremendous momentum of the padel in our league with multiple projects.

PM - What's next?

We already have clubs ready to embark on the padel. We feel an expectation and a great desire for our tennis clubs to also embark on the bath of padel. As we have seen, there are many DES to train and take advantage of the initiations planned all week during the ITF.

Of course, we can base ourselves on the existing clubs with the Stade Toulousain, the Club de l'Hers, Paddle Plus and the Padel Toulouse Club.

PM - Does the league have any special financial support?

No, there is currently no provision for financial assistance for clubs, but we can provide our expertise to project leaders. Our network is obviously very important, the setting up of training courses for DE for the moment is multiplying everywhere. Moreover, Toulouse recently hosted continuing education for padel for DE. the EDs have been very numerous and we receive a lot of demand for more.

PM - Will this initiative during the ITF Toulouse-Balma be renewed?

PD - The results are very positive and the experience will certainly be repeated. For some time now we have believed in padel and we are getting more and more involved. Proof is this land of padel for the Toulouse - Balma international tennis tournament. Tennis and padel have a very interesting future together because these are sports that complement each other. The heyday of this new sport in France promises to be bright.

Interviewed by Franck Binisti - Padel Magazine

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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