Alors que le  number of competitors  continues to progress in France, a paradoxical phenomenon seems to be taking hold:  Filling certain tournaments is becoming increasingly difficult A finding shared by  Frederic Richeme An experienced referee and well-known figure in French padel, who is raising the alarm about the proliferation of competitions and its consequences for the entire discipline.

 Tables that are struggling to fill up 

According to Frédéric Richeme, the landscape has changed profoundly in just a few years.

“Two years ago, we were turning away players in P500 tournaments and even in qualifying rounds. Today, there are too many tournaments and not enough players in that category. Competitors prefer to try their luck in P1000, P1500 or even P2000 tournaments, at least for qualifying.”

The arbitrator illustrates his point with a concrete example: a  P500, which he planned to organize with about twenty teams  counted only  ten entries  one week before the closing date.

"I won't hide from you that I'm worried."

 A call to step outside one's comfort zone 

Beyond the issue of scheduling, Frédéric Richeme believes that many players are still hesitant to move up a category.

"In our department, there are approximately 2,900 players, nearly 500 of whom are ranked in the top 10,000. It's a shame that 2,600 of you limit yourselves to the top 100. In our sport, you also have to know how to take risks and accept losing in order to progress."

For him, this caution naturally hinders the filling of higher categories and limits the opportunities to create more challenging competitions.

 The Les Bruyères club in Pau faces the same reality 

This trend is not sparing the clubs.   Pau (FR) , the  Les Bruyères club  He also notes increasing difficulties in attracting enough teams to certain tournaments, despite a substantial pool of players.

This situation fuels questions about the current balance of competitive supply and the relevance of multiplying events in the same geographical area.

 Frédéric Richeme proposes several simple and quick adaptations to be implemented to restore coherence to the competition calendar. 

His initial observation is unequivocal:  There are far too many tournament categories today. According to him, this multiplication, intended to offer more choices to players, has ultimately made the system more complex and less transparent.

"We thought that by creating more and more categories, we would meet the competitors' expectations. In reality, we ended up losing everyone."

The arbitrator thus suggests that  remove categories P50 and P250 In his view, the distinction between  P100 and P250 have become very blurry.  : some clubs organize P250s whose level corresponds more to a P100, while others offer P100s which would be perfectly at home in P250.

Another suggestion:  put an end to P500s organized over half a day, or even just an evening. This formula would have contributed to an explosion in the number of P500s, whereas this is theoretically the first category where the level of competition should really rise.

"If a P500 tournament is played in a few hours, one can legitimately wonder what the point is of organizing a P250."

Frédéric Richeme believes that  The P500s should take at least a full day, possibly even two days. , in order to gradually prepare players for the demands of higher categories and to restore value to this competition.

Finally, he would welcome a more legible pyramid, where  The P25s would serve as an entry point for beginners and recreational practitioners. , While  The P1000s would represent a genuine sporting objective for the most seasoned competitors. , with a more consistent progression between the different levels.

 Towards a regulation of the calendar? 

For Frédéric Richeme, a discussion deserves to be initiated with the  French Tennis Federation (FFT) The goal would not be to hinder the development of padel, but to adapt the number of competitions to the reality on the ground  in order to avoid excessive dispersion of players.

According to him, a better-structured calendar would benefit the entire ecosystem:  clubs, organizers, referees and competitors Otherwise, the risk is that tournaments with incomplete draws will multiply, creating general weariness.

The paradox is therefore very real:  Never before has French padel had so many registered players and competitors, but never before have some organizers had so much difficulty filling their events This is a topic that could quickly become one of the major challenges in the development of the discipline.

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.

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