Premier Padel : a Wild Card cannot be bought… and that's probably not written there by chance

Wild cards are a recurring topic of debate in professional padel. Why this pair rather than another? Why favor local players? How far can the organizer go in using these invitations to boost the appeal of their tournament?

The rule Premier Padel 2026 leaves organizers with considerable flexibility. But it also sets a particularly clear limit: A Wild Card cannot be exchanged for any financial compensation.

The text prohibits both the organizer from receiving compensation and the player from offering compensation in exchange for an invitation.

A detail that might seem almost obvious. Yet, a look at tennis helps to understand why sporting authorities take care to put this prohibition in writing. Because in professional tennis, Players have actually been penalized for buying or attempting to buy Wild Cards.

What exactly does it say? Premier Padel ?

The rule appears in the section Section 2.3 is dedicated to Wild Cards .

Premier Padel begins by defining a Wild Card as a pair chosen by the tournament to occupy one of the places specifically reserved for invitations in the draw.

The application must be submitted by both parties within the specified timeframe and, importantly, The nominations must be approved by the FIP A Wild Card only becomes officially valid after this approval.

Then comes this sentence:

“Local Organizers or any of their representatives, officials, workers, etc. may not receive any compensation, nor may players offer any compensation, in exchange for a Wild Card in any of the Premier Padel Tournaments.”

In other words:

"Local organizers or their representatives, officials, employees, etc., may not receive any compensation, and players may not offer any compensation in exchange for a Wild Card in a tournament" Premier Padel »

Difficult to be more clear.

The ban works both ways.

The wording is interesting because it protects both sides of the system.

On the one hand, the organizer cannot request or receive compensation in exchange for an invitation.

The other, the player cannot offer compensation to obtain this invitation.

In other words, the rule does not simply prohibit a player from "buying" a Wild Card.

It prohibits more broadly that a Wild Card becomes the object of a transaction between the one who can grant it and the one who wishes to receive it .

And this disposition is exactly the same in women.

Please note: paying for registration is obviously not the same as buying a Wild Card.

A distinction must be made immediately.

The rule Premier Padel It also includes the payment of tournament registration fees.

This is obviously not what this provision aims to achieve.

A player receiving a Wild Card may be subject to the normal financial obligations required to participate in the tournament.

What is forbidden is compensation paid specifically in exchange for the awarding of the Wild Card .

This is a crucial distinction.

So who decides on the Wild Cards?

Premier Padel It leaves local organizers the option of selecting the pairs they wish to invite, but their choice is not entirely autonomous.

The regulations state that organizers must submit the selected Wild Cards for the main draw and qualifying rounds to the FIP for approval. The tournament director must also communicate the nominations in writing to the FIP and the Supervisor.

Even before this communication, the tournament director must obtain a written confirmation from the pair indicating that she accepts the invitation.

The organizer therefore chooses, but the procedure is formalized and The FIP retains approval power .

How many Wild Cards are available?

The number of invitations depends on the tournament category.

For men, the 2026 regulations stipulate:

Major: 3 Wild Cards in the main draw and 2 in qualifying ;
P1: 3 + 2 ;
P2: 2 + 2 .

A clarification is provided for the 16-pair qualifying draws: only one Wild Card is available in this case.

In women, the system differs:

Major: 2 in the main draw and 1 in qualifying ;
P1: 1 + 1 ;
P2: 1 in the main draw and none in qualifying .

This difference between men and women is, in itself, another interesting aspect of the regulation.

Why specify that a Wild Card cannot be bought?

This is probably the most interesting question.

Premier Padel does not explain, in this section of the regulations, Why This sentence has been introduced.

Therefore, we cannot say that it is the result of a specific incident that occurred in professional padel.

And after research, we have not identified any sufficiently documented cases among Premier Padel or in the old World Padel Tour allowing us to establish that a player had purchased a Wild Card and that this affair had directly led to this rule.

In contrast, in another, much older racket sport, tennis, the issue is far from theoretical.

ATP has almost the same rule

The ATP 2026 regulations contain a remarkably similar provision.

In its section dedicated to Wild Cards, the ATP specifies:

“Tournaments may not receive compensation and players may not offer compensation in exchange for the awarding of a wild card.”

Is :

"Tournaments cannot receive any compensation, and players cannot offer any compensation in exchange for receiving a Wild Card."

Proximity to the text Premier Padel is striking.

Premier Padel it states that organizers cannot receive compensation and that players cannot offer any.

ATP says virtually exactly the same thing.

And in tennis, we know why this type of protection is necessary.

In tennis, wild cards have actually been bought.

A particularly telling case dates back to 2016.

The Chilean player Mauricio Alvarez-Guzman was found guilty of offences related in particular to the purchase of a Wild Card to enter the draw of an ITF Futures tournament in Antalya, Turkey.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency – at the time the Tennis Integrity Unit – indicates that he had indeed bought a Wild Card for the singles draw and had also intended to buy one for twice the price.ITIA)

The case is particularly interesting because the decision subsequently rendered on appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport allows us to go even further.

The evidence in the proceedings establishes that Alvarez-Guzman had agreed to pay 600 Euros to obtain the Wild Card in singles.

The reasoning behind the decision explains precisely why this practice is problematic: Wild Cards should provide an opportunity for deserving players who would not normally be able to enter the tournament. This principle would be compromised if they were awarded to players offering money or if tournaments could use them to generate revenue.

This gives a whole new dimension to the little phrase in the regulation. Premier Padel.

A Spaniard sentenced to 15 years: among the offenses, paying for a Wild Card

And this is not an old, isolated case.

In April 2024, the ITIA announced a suspension of 15 years of the Spanish player Aaron Cortes , former world number 955.

Cortes had admitted to 35 violations of the tennis anti-corruption program committed between 2016 and 2018.

These included match-fixing, tennis betting, and failures to report corrupt approaches.

But the ITIA also explicitly mentions:

“providing money to tournament officials in exchange for a wild card” i.e "Having provided money to tournament officials in exchange for a Wild Card." (

However, a word of caution: it would be incorrect to write that Aaron Cortes was suspended for 15 years. solely for having purchased a Wild Card .

The sanction concerned 35 offences , including several particularly serious ones linked in particular to match-fixing.

But his case demonstrates that the risk of corruption surrounding the allocation of invitations really exists in professional sport.

The ITF is now directly warning the players

The position of international tennis is now extremely clear.

In its documentation for World Tennis Tour players, the ITF states:

“Players must not buy wild cards.”

Is :

"Players should not buy Wild Cards."

The ITF adds that if someone offers to sell a Wild Card to a player, the player must report it to the ITIA.

The ban is therefore now integrated not only into the regulations, but also into the prevention messages addressed directly to the players.

A Wild Card is not just an invitation

These precedents help to understand why the issue is sensitive.

A Wild Card can have real sporting and economic value.

It allows a pair that would not normally have access to the table due to its ranking to enter it directly.

In the case of Premier PadelTherefore, it can provide access to FIP points , to prize money, media exposure and the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world.

This value mechanically creates a risk: transforming a discretionary sporting decision into an advantage that can be monetized.

This is a analysis , and not a justification given explicitly by Premier Padel in its regulations. But documented precedents in tennis show very clearly why federations and circuits have an interest in closing this door.

This does not mean that Wild Cards are immune to controversy.

Banning their sale obviously does not eliminate all the debates.

A Wild Card remains by definition an invitation awarded outside of the sole order of the ranking.

Organizers may seek to showcase local players, young prospects, stars returning from injury, or profiles likely to attract the public.

Tennis regularly experiences controversy over these choices.

But we must distinguish between two very different things:

Making a questionable sporting or commercial choice in awarding a Wild Card is not the same as receiving compensation in exchange for that Wild Card.

It is this second situation that the regulation Premier Padel explicitly forbidden.

A rule that looks a lot like tennis… and probably not by chance

It cannot be established, based on the available evidence, that Premier Padel adopted this provision following a case of Wild Card being bought in padel.

However, we can establish three things.

The rule Premier Padel 2026 explicitly prohibits any compensation in exchange for a Wild Card, whether from the organizer or the player.

The ATP 2026 regulations contain a virtually identical ban .

And professional tennis has already experienced several real cases in which players paid to obtain a Wild Card , including those of Mauricio Alvarez-Guzman and Aaron Cortes.

The little phrase in the regulations Premier Padel It then seems much less innocuous.

Because a Wild Card is specifically designed to allow the organizer to make a discretionary choice.

And since a place in a professional ranking has sporting, financial and media value, one rule becomes essential:

The organizer can choose who receives the invitation. They cannot sell it.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.