Who will be part of the FFT padel team?

The French Tennis Federation is in full swing reorganization. New teams, a new strategy, and great ambitions for padel. We will mention 3 backers from the first hour to Gilles Moretton who could be part of this new padel organization chart: Jean Couvercelle, Christian Collange and Christophe Lesage.

A padel team will be set up

The new president of the FFT, Gilles Moretton announced the color: “We are going to build a real working group dedicated to padel”.

This means that the FFT could set up a department that only concerns padel.

We remember the words of Claude Baigts, the President of the EACP (European Association of Private Padel Clubs) with this desire to see "an agency dedicated to padel within the FFT". It is not clear for the moment whether things will unfold like this, but we will certainly come close to it in practice.

This new organization could take shape very soon if we are to believe Gilles Moretton's first press conference since his election.

Who will become the elected official in charge of padel?

The FFT is currently setting up its teams after the appointment of Nicolas Escudé as National Technical Director of the FFT ad interim.

We know that the general organization could change significantly in 2021. The very idea of an elected official in charge of padel could be revised, in terms of its form and/or its prerogatives.

In making political fiction, we thought of 3 people to run for padel responsibilities within the FFT:

Christian Collange, Christophe Lesage and Jean Couvercelle.

First of all, they are among Gilles Moretton's major supporters. They have been involved in this campaign since the first days. The three men were among the padel advisors of the new President of the French Tennis Federation. Consequently, the program that will be implemented by the FFT today also comes from the ideas and discussions with this trio.

A strong trio

All three of them have significant experience around padel, in addition to knowing tennis very well.

Jean Couvercelle

Jean Couvercelle is a great figure in French tennis. The founder of Tennis Magazine had accepted in 2014/2015 that Padel Magazine talks about padel in the famous tennis magazine. Better: Tennis Magazine had integrated “mini mags Padel Magazine”In its distribution.

Since then, Jean has never been far from padel. With his sons, he definitively launched into the padel adventure by investing in one of the great French padel centers: Le Big Padel Maroon.

Christian Collange

Christian Collange has a great deal of sporting experience. The former manager of Tennis Padel Soleil in Beausoleil has become a real propadel activist. His activities related to Bullpadel and his functions as President of the padel committee of the PACA league make him a key player in French padel.

The results in the PACA league speak for themselves since the league is one of the most active in France with regular significant progress. A true locomotive of French padel, the FFT has often inspired by this league to continue its development.

Padel advisor for the list 'Together for Another Tennis“, It would not be surprising to see him take the lead in addition to his functions in the PACA league.

Christophe Lesage

It is one of the pillars of French tennis. The President of the National Tennis Cup is the head of the largest amateur tennis competition in the world. With Franck Binisti, he joined forces to create the National Padel Cup, the first competition to launch a large-scale national circuit across France with a unique final phase at the Cap d'Agde International Tennis Center.

A competition which has taken place over time and which obviously benefits from the strength of the National Tennis Cup.

Christophe Lesage can also count on extensive experience through his collaboration with the padel court builder Technopadel.

The former professional tennis player is one of Gilles Moretton's loyal supporters. He is close to the new President of the FFT. He was an important support to tennis clubs during the campaign.

Women on the bill?

In this padel group that will be set up at the FFT, we can bet that there will be women present. We can already see this in the new organization chart of the FFT. This is why we think of Line Meites, nicknamed “the voice” in the world of French padel. Indeed, she seems to have all the qualities to occupy a position in the new padel group with significant skills at the club level, coaching, but also as a padel commentator in France and internationally.

We also think of the former / current professional padel players who have returned from Spain and who would be an undeniable help to French padel at the FFT. Laura Clergue has stopped her Spanish adventure. She explained that she wanted to continue in padel. What if she moved up a gear within the FFT? With her experience acquired in France and on the World Padel TourLaura has many qualities to match the needs of the FFT.

As you can see, padel is full of competent people. Here we tried to do a bit of political fiction a few hours/days before the new padel organization is set up at the FFT.

Whatever happens, the die is cast: padel is promised an exceptional future!

Photo credits: Xavier Palau Monax

Franck Binisti

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.