Following our article “ Au padel also, Switzerland takes its time “, the vice-president of the Swiss federation, Manuel Faure, answered our questions on the development of the padel in his country, where there are currently around a hundred tracks, 800 members and around 10 practitioners.

Padel Magazine : Beyond the clichés about the supposed slowness of the Swiss, how is the padel in Swiss ?

Manuel Faure: “To speak of slowness seems exaggerated to me, because we started later than other countries and it is only for about three years that the padel is really starting to spread more widely in our country. We are at the stage where Denmark was at the end of 2018: there were around a hundred pitches there and in three years, this figure has exceeded 400. We SUIPA (the Swiss federation Padel) hope to achieve the same speed of development! »

Making an investment profitable is more risky

PM: What are the specific obstacles and difficulties in Switzerland?

FM: “The main obstacles to the rapid development of new sites of padel are of three kinds. First, the cost per square meter of land in Switzerland, particularly in urban or peri-urban areas. Then, the scarcity of favorable sites, which are for example far from residential areas in order to avoid appeals against projects due to nuisances. Finally, the weight of charges, wages, insurance, etc., which makes the return on an investment of padel more risky. »

PM: Conversely, what are the advantages of padel Swiss ?

FM: “Tennis is a bit on the decline, after the prosperous decades of the end of the last century and the first of the 21st century, which creates a development niche for our sport. Tennis clubs and other sports centers see in the padel a way of diversifying their offer, in the face of a clientele that is also less loyal to a single sport than in the past. From a performance perspective, it is clear that space is more efficiently used by the padel : eight players of padel occupy about the same area as a tennis court!

In addition, the short distances in Switzerland and the high population density can also be assets, as this facilitates mixing between players from the various regions.

The n°2 of the Swiss federation Manuel Faure pala in hand

PM: What are SUIPA's priority objectives as a federation?

FM: “Since 2021, we have made good progress on several objectives: the padel is for example now present in all regions of the country, the number of competitions is increasing, sponsors are more and more interested in padel and a national junior movement took off, concretized by the sending of Swiss selections to two European championships.

Our priority objective remains the recognition of the sport “padel” by the organization “Swiss Olympic”, which is the umbrella organization of Swiss sport. This would then formalize the padel as a recognized sport in Switzerland and would give access to certain aid or subsidies - for example aid to clubs in times of a pandemic... We currently meet all the criteria for submitting an acceptance file, except that of the 1000 active members, which Shouldn't be long now – there are currently around 800 – by 2023 certainly.”

Le padel, “little cousin” of tennis?

FM: Following acceptance at Swiss Olympic, we will then be able to have the training that we have set up recognized by the national "Youth and Sport" structure, which will add new modules to our training and will allow trained coaches to receive funds for courses given to groups of young people up to 20 years old. 

Our other objectives [detailed in this article from January 2021], such as development in schools, the promotion of padel with the sports authorities, the presence at major sporting or popular events or the holding of international competitions, still remains topical, to varying degrees.

PM: You are not in favor of integrating the padel within a tennis federation, as is the case in France. Why ?

 FM: “For SUIPA, the padel must remain independent of other racquet sports. The association with tennis is perhaps beneficial in the short term, giving faster access to big resources, but in the medium or long term, we believe that this association will lead to maintaining the padel in the role of a "little cousin" of tennis, who will not always be able to freely decide his future! Besides, why the padel Should it be associated with tennis, when the other racket sports such as badminton, squash or table tennis all have their national federations?

PM: The padel Switzerland receive public funding?

FM: “Communes and cantons are starting to include projects”padel” in their current and future construction projects. With media coverage increasing alongside the number of practitioners, sporting authorities can no longer ignore the padel ! Public aid for a project site is essentially local, at the level of the municipality or the canton, and the situations vary greatly from one region of Switzerland to another. We were able to see it with the aid distributed during the various confinements linked to the Covid. Recognition by Swiss Olympic will bring additional credit to the sport”padel” and will certainly facilitate the acceptance of certain requests for support. »

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

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