Premier Padel has shaken up the professional padel scene over the past 6 months with the establishment of exceptional events, prize money multiplied by 5 and an assumed international ambition.

Qatar Sport Investment and International Federation of Padel call themselves partners on the professional padel circuit Premier Padel.

The FIP has unquestionably made a U-turn in its relations with the World Padel Tour in the second half of 2021. Today she criticizes it. The Professional Padel Players Association does the same.

In unison, these two organizations are pushing to see Premier Padel take the leadership as the reference professional padel circuit and denounce the practices of World Padel Tour.

We will try to understand the organization of this new circuit.

Premier Padel LLC: a private structure

Part of the information can be found on the official Qatari government website “Qatar financial center“. The elements are very clear on this partnership between QSI and the FIP. They are now partners on Premier Padel.

Premier Padel LLC is domiciled in Qatar and not in Lausanne in Switzerland like the FIP. 

Premier Padel is a private entity with a capital of QAR100,000.00 or approximately €25.000.

Premier Padel FIP qatar admin

5 members including Luigi Carraro

The members of the board of Premier Padel :

  • Mr Ziad Hage Hammoud
  • Mr. Yousif Mohammed HA Al Obaidli
  • Mr Nasser Ghanim In Al Khelaifi
  • Mr Luigi Carraro
  • Mr Diego Miguel Miller Vidal

The President of the FIP, Luigi Carraro, is therefore a member of the board of Premier Padel, as does the president of QSI, Nasser al-Khelaïfi.

We will recognize Diego Miller, the President of the Uruguayan Padel Federation and Luigi Carraro's right-hand man within the FIP.

associates Premier Padel

What to think of it?

Difficult to know if all this is legal or not.

  • Is all this normal?
  • Can members of the FIP also be members of a private circuit?
  • Are these precisely the reasons that prompted the FIP to take a stand against the World Padel Tour so suddenly at the end of 2021?

The other question we legitimately ask ourselves: isn't there a conflict of interest?

Because some players, padel players, do not understand why the FIP is exclusive for the moment and does not accept to welcome other circuits under its umbrella. Is it because the FIP has much more than commercial relations with QSI?

Inevitably, we question ourselves even if we imagine that there is a logic.

The document is completely official and does not suffer from any ambiguity.

Therefore, during the Greenweez Paris Premier Padel Major, we will try to interview the President of the International Federation to find out more about the relationship between Premier Padel, QSI and FIP.

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.

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