Long player and passionate about tennis (classified at 0 and over 25 years old in the second series and Davis Cup player for MONACO), State patent 2nd degree in tennis (current DES), teacher for 20 years, Christian Collange, became the Mister Padel from the PACA region. He will tell us all about his mission and his ambitions around the padel.

Padel Magazine - Before talking about the future, we can already talk about your great experience in tennis ...

Christian Collange - I have always managed and managed FFT TENNIS clubs (Cap d'ail, Beausoleil) in Beausoleil (10 years of management).

I created the first courses of padel in the region in 2013 and organized the first tournament PADEL French approved with the FFT.

I have been elected to the 06 TENNIS departmental committee (Alpes-Maritimes Committee) for 7 years. And this year I became Chairman of the commission PADEL 06 and was recently appointed Chairman of the Commission PADEL FFT FOR THE PACA REGION (6 departments)

PM - What is the purpose of your mission?

CC - THE GOAL: THE DEVELOPMENT OF PADEL ! I obviously became passionate about padel since 5 years. Since I sold the Beausoleil complex, I have devoted myself to my federal role, and to my company SUN SPORTS EVENTS (and my partner OLIVIER RAYMOND) which distributes sports brands in France (such as BULLPADEL , etc….), which creates sports events and which will soon open a sports store with a top global brand.

PM - Besides, you gathered your equipment as part of the development of the padel in the PACA region

CC - Indeed, and I am very proud of my team, with whom we recently had our first office meeting (20 March 2018) very productive.

We had the pleasure during this meeting to have the presence of Mr the president of the PACA league (jean claude BOUSTEAU), Jean-Patrick LEYDELET from the competition department, Mrs GIRARDI coordinator of the CTRs and obviously the members of the office who are club managers or presidents (JP CASANOVA (04), ALAIN FANTONI (05), BERNARD GUSSY (13), EDGAR MUS (83), OLIVIER SIAS, FREDERIC GARDET (manager of Padel Riviera Mougins) and JEREMY RITZ (for the competition sector, currently number 3 in France).

In short, a varied office to have an eye and a return at the level of departments, clubs or competition.

A team in working order to develop the padel in our region.

PM - And what were the topics discussed at this meeting?

A more complete report will be delivered soon but the main points were:

  • COURTS AND STRUCTURES OF PADEL IN PACA: currently, in the PACA league, there are 35 structures padel and 72 fields knowing that out of the 35 clubs, 24 structures have at least 2 fields; the goal will be to be able to help these different structures in their evolution (construction of additional land etc ...)
  • TOURNAMENTS PADEL : the point is that there are a lot of padel on the region: Between March and mid-April there are 13 tournaments padel, which is a lot, our goal will be to organize a harmonization of tournaments on the different structures, see for a limitation of the level of the players on the P250 also (already exists for the P100), to review the organization and harmonization of the P1000 ( can be create a higher category) and of course try to quickly propose the categories VETERANS AND YOUTH because it becomes difficult in the same tournament and on the same ground to put in opposition young people of 20 years and seniors of more than 50 years … For MIXED categories of padel, we're working on it seriously.
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE PACA CHAMPIONSHIPS OF PADEL : we know that the FRANCE championship will be played in Toulouse (Toulouse Padel Club) on September 21,22, 23 and 22,23. The regional final phase will be played on June 24, 3 and 13 (place to be confirmed, surely in the Aix area) and the qualifying phases for the regional phase will be played on 83 sites (to be confirmed): a phase in the 06, a phase in the XNUMX and a phase in the XNUMX: the dates of these qualifications should be confirmed for the beginning of June;
  • DEVELOPMENT OF PADEL IN PACA: by the Federation, today, development aid for investment is in place, the files are analyzed individually and other very important points have been addressed;
  • TEAM COMPETITIONS PADEL seniors, veterans and young people
  • THE CREATION OF VETERAN AND YOUTH CATEGORIES ASAP for tournaments and team competitions
  • TEACHING PADEL, organization of schools padel, we now know that only DE tennis can teach padel. TRAINING EXISTS specific for themselves if the new CQP animation make it possible to “animate” the padel also… this is a very important point to put in place; it will also be necessary to see for the establishment of DETECTIONS for young people, regional gatherings, courses for the elite etc.

In short, a lot of work but that is what is very motivating.

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.