The Bandeja Magazine Issue 2

News
ITF & FIP
the battle for padel
ITF: the reasons why
The ITF has, for several years, been
discussing padel with stakeholders. Last
year member nations were consulted,
leading the federation’s board of
directors to ’strongly believe’ that it was
in the best interests of members, the ITF
and tennis to include padel within its
jurisdiction for the following reasons:
• to ensure the harmonious
development of padel with tennis
• to give one single governing
body to the ITF member national
tennis associations that also have
responsibility for padel
• to provide a global padel competition
structure open to all ITF member
national tennis associations
• to protect tennis from reputational
damage that could flow from the
separate regulation (and, therefore,
different standards) of integrity
within padel, including anti-doping,
safeguarding, anti-corruption and
reciprocation of penalties between
padel and tennis
• to protect ITF members, the ITF and
tennis from padel and FIP benefitting
from its long-standing and significant
efforts and investment into developing
grass roots participation, coaching
and officiating frameworks, and
court infrastructure.
Padel has been gathering fans in the media
over the last few months but not all coverage
has been positive, with a furore blowing up in
November which pitched the ITF (International
Tennis Federation) against the International
Padel Federation (FIP).
The very public spat erupted from
the ITF’s move to support its member
nations in providing governance and
support when growing padel in their
own countries. More than 100 ITF
members have already, or are about
to, adopt the game, much as the LTA
did in the UK in 2020.
This broadening of the federation’s
scope to develop and govern padel
was condemned by FIP, which has
carried out the role for more than
30 years.
The plan, presented at the ITF’s
AGM in Glasgow on November 14th,
was ‘leaked’ by a UK newspaper
ahead of this meeting and a furious
row ensued with FIP President Luigi
Carraro threatening legal action
and branding the idea a ‘hostile
takeover of padel’ by ‘self-interested
sports executives seeking to rail-road
through resolutions to swallow up
developing sports’.
And he didn’t stop there, reportedly
travelling to Glasgow to lobby ITF
members and writing to them (some
of whom are also FIP members,
including the LTA) outlining all that
FIP had achieved (including 16 World
Championships, 13 Junior World
Championships and 14 European
Championships), pointing out that the
ITF had had no involvement in padel
and stating that its actions would
contravene the Olympic charter.
The ITF, for its part, asserts that
it wishes to bring unity to padel,
acknowledging that it’s been growing
in tennis clubs and shares similarities/
infrastructure with tennis. At least 25
of its member national associations
already have jurisdiction over padel
and at least 15 nations had asked
the ITF to take a leadership role in
the sport.
The brief
With the stage set, the ITF engaged
British former pro tennis player Abigail
Tordoff to brief members ahead of
the AGM vote. She outlined how padel
has grown worldwide and positively
impacted tennis club membership
and revenue, with padel and tennis
14 thebandeja.com