Franck Binisti's editorial: He answers questions and comments related to a topical issue. He gives his opinion when possible. Critics are always welcome.
La new FFT regulations around the obligation for organizers and clubs to organize women's padel tournaments does not seem to be unanimous.
I will try to respond to comments and give you my opinion on this topic.
What are we talking about?
First, let's assume that everyone wants to promote women's padel and, moreover, padel in general... On therefore pushes open doors by developing this theme.
Let's agree that padel clubs and organizers are the first to do their utmost to develop women's padel for several years.
The interests of the FFT and the clubs are therefore the same.
The lack of female competitors is not unique to our sport, nor to France. In addition, the interests of the players are very different: we distinguish between female competitors with ambitions on the French circuit and female competitors whose approach is more “leisure”.
Finally, since the subject concerns competition, we are talking about 1500 competitors, a good half of whom do not seem to have the desire to do more tournaments than what is offered to them.
Start at the beginning, a good idea?
Shouldn't we start at the beginning, that is to say "create" players, then in a second phase competitors with a real development policy around women's padel?
The competition, the tournaments, it's an achievement in my opinion. So first of all, you need the environment to create female padel players.
Does forcing a padel club to offer a women's tournament create a positive environment around the players? Without taking too many risks, it seems to me that this is not the case or at least to a very marginal degree.
I would go even further: forcing clubs to organize women's tournaments, isn't that counterproductive? Indeed, as we know, it often happens that the women's tables are relatively empty. Sometimes, the events are postponed or canceled. By doing this, is it motivating for the players, is it a positive signal for the development of women's padel?
Then, what is a women's padel development policy? For now, they are just words but they mean absolutely nothing because the only vision we have at the moment is this small part in the padel tournament competition guide.
Shouldn't we instead set up a real promotion system around women's padel? First, try to get them to come to padel, hook them on this sport so that they become regular players in the long term, some of whom become competitors.
How to “create” players?
- Discos
- Dating sites
We should see their methods precisely and try to adapt them to our sport.
Are we going to create female players by forcing clubs to hold tournaments?
Asking the question is already annoying for clubs and organizers. Haven't they already proven their work for the promotion of women's padel with all their actions carried out? Don't you think we can trust them to continue on this path?

Many themes in the subject were discussed around ladies tournaments and the obligation for clubs to do so.
1 / Is this the right time to do it? Now ? Under the conditions we know?
2 / Can a Federation interfere to this point in the life of a club? It is far from being so obvious if we are to believe the many players directly concerned.
3 / Is this measure applicable? We are talking about 1500 female competitors, two thirds of whom do very few tournaments. And these competitors are often in the same regions. And I'm not talking about the huge delta in terms of level…
4/ And finally, having seen it and suffered it (as a modest little organizer of a few women's tournaments): when you take time to organize a women's tournament and in the end, as unfortunately too often, you have a table that is not very full, and in addition you are confronted with very significant level gaps between pairs who know each other very / too well, you end up with dissatisfied players who will not do any more women's padel tournaments. It's frustrating for everyone, and in addition it is not positive for the image of the club / organizer...
My conclusion
This notion of obligation obviously bothers me. As if the clubs weren't doing the job.
The promotion of women's padel must be done. But is that all we have found to promote women's padel?
For my part, I find that these regulations place responsibilities on the clubs and play on their credibility in cases where the competition is canceled. And we know that it often happens that ladies' tournaments are canceled.
For info here is a quote:
With this measure, we have the impression that the FFT is telling the clubs that we are not playing the game. However, it is the FFT that is not playing the game by not launching a real development policy among the women.
It reports its deficiencies on the clubs which are already doing a lot.
We have the impression that this small measure will do something. Let me know where regulations of this type have brought something beneficial to a sport. And above all: how sad to see that in order to develop women's padel, clubs are required to follow a particular regulation of this type.
The basic problem is that you already have to create players before thinking about competition. But as often, the FFT puts everything on the competition, the big clubs, the best players and never on the base, the creation of players.
Distressing.
Here is another quote:
“(…) No consultation, the FFT had to listen to the big clubs which are in big cities like Paris, Toulouse, Lille, Lyon… the others are forgotten.”
These words are not mine. I find this Jacobin side of the FFT to be extremely awkward. The clubs are on edge… It wouldn't take much for it to go away.
Finally once again, it is the field / the back office that will speak ...

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.