Arnaud Saurois  is one of the padel analysts in France. A padel player, but also a lecturer, he gives us his opinion on the future of padel in France with the French Tennis Federation.

Faced with themes such as a possible independence of padel in relation to the FFT or the proposal to integrate a padel agency in the FFT, he believes that it is not so simple and that padel could even perhaps lose out.

Arnaud argues in 9 points:

1- the FFT is an association

2- Tennis is also suffering in other countries, yet it is not the French federation which is in charge

3- It is the Ministry of Sports which manages the approvals for the federations, as for the Stand Up Paddle (between the French Federation of Canoe-Kayak and Surf), like the kite Surf, the MMA… It is not really “fashionable” at State level to create new delegated federations. Many of them try for new fashionable disciplines.

4- There are many examples of federations (and more and more) which manage several sports (cycling with BMX, mountain biking, track… - Basketball with 3 × 3 - Gym with GR etc. Internal debates are still ongoing. very animated with the historical discipline and the others, it is very old.

5- there was already an independent padel federation in France, there have been tracks for a very long time (80s), but it is less than 10 years since this sport “exploded” here

6- there is necessarily a “balance of power” to engage internally within the FFT to make padel weigh more but if we are passionate about this discipline, we must (for the moment) put its weight in terms of practitioners, licensees, volunteers, € and media image into perspective. The gap will reduce but it is still huge (we are not objective because we have the virus)

7- Federations like those of tennis (there are very few as powerful) have a very important inertia. It is necessarily too slow for us but when the machine moves forward, it has immense means allowing to save a lot of time for padel

8- We will have to get involved in federal bodies, departments, leagues and federations to make padel heard, some have already started.

9- the battle of associative clubs VS commercial clubs also exist in other federations (surfing, golf, climbing, horse riding, sailing, etc.) it is interesting to draw inspiration from their (sometimes long) experiences so as not to repeat the same mistakes and to move faster and harder.

Arnaud Saurois

Associate lecturer in sports management at the University of Poitiers, former director of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Olympic and Sports Committee and former member of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (to explain the view of other federations), and most importantly: PADEL PLAYER!

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