Padel is about to be propelled into a brand new stratosphere after the prize cash for the primary occasion of the brand new world tour was confirmed, with €525,000 up for grabs at every match.
The Worldwide Padel Federation (FIP) has agreed and a brand new international strategic partnership with QSI, the funding group behind a number of world-leading sports activities manufacturers and companies primarily based in Qatar.
This funding has the potential to propel padel at a speedy tempo, with plans to push for the game to be included within the 2028 Olympics Video games a part of a technique by FIP and QSI to unfold the padel message to a large viewers.
Padel has been described as a cross between tennis and squash, performed on a court docket surrounded by a heavy-duty glass that enables gamers to hit the ball after it bounces again off the wall.
Liverpool supervisor Jurgen Klopp is a giant fan of the game, as is former Chelsea captain John Terry and British Olympic hero Denise Lewis has additionally confirmed she is a lover of padel, with that stage of star backing convincing Citadel the game is able to take off within the UK and world wide.
As is commonly the case when in the beginning of a sporting revolution, the padel’s previous guard are combating to halt the progress being supplied by the game’s governing physique and backed by the Skilled Gamers Affiliation (PPA).
That has resulted in organisers of the long-established World Padel Tour trying to halt the progress of the brand new enterprise, with a court docket submitting issued bt FIP with the European Fee aiming to launch gamers from their dedication to the World Padel Tour (WPT) and permitting them to additionally compete within the QSI-backed occasions.
“This authorized motion on the European Fee by the Federation and the Skilled Gamers Affiliation is unprecedented,” stated Luigi Carraro, President of the FIP.
“It highlights within the clearest phrases WPT’s abusive and exploitative monopoly regime, which has held padel gamers underneath its grip for years – insulting the skilled athletes and stifling the worldwide development and ambition of the game. The very fact this motion has been pressured to be introduced within the first place is a surprising indictment, in of itself.
“Personal, closed, commercially-exploitative and unregulated leagues – that imprison the skilled gamers – have completely no place in trendy skilled sport.
“The response now we have acquired for the reason that new Official tour launched, solely two weeks in the past, is completely astonishing. From host cities to worldwide broadcasters to main sponsors and different business companions – together with a few of the largest manufacturers and names in sport.
“We’re delighted to open the Official new tour in Doha on 28 March, in what would be the biggest match ever hosted in padel. We’re additionally delighted to disclose the prize cash for class 1 tournaments, along with our new rating factors system. By no means ever have we had such pleasure round our sport, nor such a optimistic {and professional} future for our gamers.”
The brand new FIP World Tour has additionally acquired backing from the Board of Administrators of the Skilled Gamers Affiliation (PPA), with the prize cash on provide set to take the sport to new stage of excellence for the sport’s high stars.
“The very fact skilled padel gamers have taken this case all the best way to the European Fee – merely to defend their freedom to play padel – speaks volumes,” learn a press release from the PPA.
“For years underneath WPT and indifferent from the Federation, skilled gamers have been handled as property, not athletes – with many gamers barely capable of cowl their prices. It shouldn’t take the European Fee to free the gamers and the game of padel from this sorry state of affairs, however the gamers will take no matter motion wanted to defend their livelihoods and to develop a greater future for padel.”
Considerably, the brand new tour is the one Official tour in padel underneath the governance and regulation of FIP, having the good thing about FIP’s Official participant rating system, and falling inside the auspices of the broader worldwide sports activities neighborhood together with the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC).
“The brand new padel world tour is a big second for our sport,” declared Britain’s finest younger padel star Tia Norton, talking to Tennis365 in her position as a Game4Padel ambassador.
“The funding from Qatar has the potential to take the game to an entire new stage world wide and that’s what all of us need. We need to get the message on the market as a result of when folks see padel, I feel they may take pleasure in it.”
The court docket battles might rage for a while between padel’s previous guard and the daring new pioneers main its future, however it is a sport set to blow up in thrilling vogue within the upcoming weeks and months.