We have talked about earlier this week, the International Federation of Padel and World Padel Tour reached an agreement to launch a new category of tournaments: WPT Next.

A new category of tournaments created

As already mentioned, these competitions were created to take their place in the official WPT calendar of FIP Tour tournaments, which came out more than three months ago now.

If we knew since then that the circuit managed by Setpoint Events was working to create new categories of tournaments, we did not know that this would be done in collaboration with the Spanish Federation of Padel. A news, which as you can see via the translated press release just below, does not really enchant the PPA, the association of professional players, chaired by Ale Galan.

PPA unfavorable to this agreement

“Following the information that has reached us regarding the agreement between the FEP and the WPT concerning the organization of tournaments through the territorial federations, we wish to express the following:

  • The PPA knew the intentions of the FEP and the autonomous federations as a result of the meetings with the president of the FEP and the territorial federations. From the start, the PPA has spoken against the production of an agreement of this type. Since the association, we support all the initiatives in favor of the growth of the padel, but we want this to always be done taking into account the opinion of the true protagonists of the sport, the players. And that's not the case here.
  • The PPA does not understand the position of the FEP which is allied with an organization which claims millions from more than 70 players who are mostly part of this federation.
  • It is even more incomprehensible that the FEP asks federations from other countries to join this initiative, without the validation of the International Federation of Padel, of which the FEP is itself a member.
  • We remind the FEP that an investigation is underway against the WPT regarding its practices of abuse of dominant position, which are contrary to European competition law, and that it should take this into account before reaching a an agreement with this private organization.
  • Faced with this situation, we ask the FEP, and its president Mr. Ramon Morcillo, to reconsider its decision because of the lack of agreement with the players and the FIP, which governs our sport at world level and whose FEP is a member.

Finally, we would like to state that from PPA we will support the promotion and development of young athletes, but in a concerted and logical way. Not at any price, and especially not without the FIP having previously been able to validate these activities between the Spanish federation and a private body.

For original version, in spanish, it's just below:

Xan is a fan of padel. But also rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel, he unearths atypical posts or deals with topical subjects. It also gives you some tips to develop your physique for the padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the field of padel !

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