Gilles Moretton, President of the French Tennis Federation, comes back with us on many current topics concerning padel, including burning issues: the development of padel in France, the international padel tournament at Roland-Garros, professionalization padel, the different circuits…
“We hope for a clarification of the professional padel”
“There are several trends in padel. We, as a Federation, hope for a clarification of professionalization in padel in the interest of everyone.
“We are very interested in Roland-Garros to become a major player in padel in the years to come. We will be more on the side of an International Federation than a private circuit.”
“We are not judges of a situation, we are just actors.”
“Things must be clear for everyone: a single classification, a single circuit, a single way to register and to prevent people from getting lost and padel losing out.”
Several professional circuits: “why not“
Several professional padel circuits? “Pwhy not. But then the actors have to be able to sit around a table and get along. But we are only a pawn within an International Padel Federation“.
“We don’t want to take a direction like boxing has done. We are not in control of the FIP, the APT, or the WPT”.
“We have already met these actors to tell them quite simply do you hear, today we are ready to go, we are ready to invest, we believe in padel, we can do great things to help you promote padel , but now do you hear. From there, we don’t have to play any role other than this. You have to leave the actors. But when it comes to power and money, we know it’s always very complicated.”
“A great padel nation”
“Arnaud Di Pasquale is at the head of Mission Padel. We called it Mission Padel because it’s a bit like a commando for us.”
“We are convinced that padel will develop. When I arrived at the head of the Federation, I found an almost mono-product federation with tennis. And in a cupboard behind me, there was stored beach tennis, padel and para-tennis.
“We signed an agreement, this very Thursday, with the National Sport Agency, 1000 new padel tracks by 2024. We are still far from certain countries in Europe, but we will catch up.”
“At the level of the structures of the Federation, we must have regional technical teams that we have in tennis, but that we do not yet have in padel.”
“We have all the assets to become a great padel nation”
International tournament at Roland-Garros: several dates under consideration
“Several Dates” are being studied for the international tournament at Roland-Garros.
“We want to do if possible this year, a big padel event” at Roland Garros.
“You have to be very careful. We are not committing the Federation to Roland-Garros on something temporary. We need security before announcing anything.”
“The dates are to be considered. There are many possibilities. But until we have a clear position on the future of professional padel, the FFT will not go in any direction”.
“We want, we are ready, with everything it has behind it, the FFT is ready to invest. “
Watch the full interview HERE:
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 by covering major French padel events.
