EXCLUSIVE by RJ Mitchell
GB Men’s head coach John Leach has called for clarity in the ongoing power struggle between padel’s two dominant governing bodies the World Padel Tour and FIP (International Padel Federation).
With both organisations running parallel tours the competition for players’ loyalties has never been so intense and, although the increased opportunity to play tournaments offers a positive upside to this, Leach admits the situation is “messy”.
In part two of his exclusive with The Padel Paper, the Team GB men’s coach admits that until positive proof emerges to show that the two bodies can reach some kind of compromise agreement the best his players can do is employ a policy of keeping a foot on either tour to ensure they make the most of this tricky situation.
Of course, power struggles are not new to international sport, with tennis riven by such internecine warfare in the 70s and 80s before the ATP emerged, while golf is currently in turmoil thanks to the obscene levels of cash being used to buy players’ commitment by the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series.
However, FIP’s recent successful hosting of the Italy Major at Rome’s historic Foro Italico saw 7,000 enraptured fans witness the victory of Spanish superstars Juan Lebrón Chincoa and Alejandro Galán which was beamed via TV to 167 territories.
This will be followed up by next month’s inaugural Paris Major at Roland Garros, the traditional home of the French Open tennis, as the struggle for padel supremacy takes a new twist with FIP perhaps now holding the whip hand.
Reflecting on all of this, Leach said: “Clarity is everything and it sounds like it is a bit of a power struggle at the moment. We will have to wait and see what comes out of it, but the players just want to know what the situation is.
“At the end of the day all the top players are now playing FIP events, although they are contracted to World Padel Tour, so it’s hard to know what implications that will have in the future if any. But we just have to find a way to let the players play in these events.
“I am sure that discussions are happening – it’s just that we don’t know how they are developing, so it’s one of those things that we will have to wait and see how they pan out.
“But in the meantime the plan is for Sam (Jones) and Christian (Murphy) to play in as many of these events as possible and hopefully they both play in the Roland Garros event next month and keep playing on both tours and do what they can to get their rankings into the top 100. That is our focus but it is a messy one.
“There is a lot of talk and we don’t really know the full story behind things. But the first thing I would say is that I was recently in Rome for the Italy Major, which FIP put on, and they did an amazing job in every way.
“The Italy Major was at the Foro Italico and then FIP will be staging the Paris Major at Roland Garros next month, so they really are picking high end venues which can only be good for the sport as it will open up padel to so many new people.
“From that perspective they have done an amazing job of finding these locations and hosting these events – but it is conflicting for players because they don’t know which events to focus on and it is difficult to advise them on this.
“There are pros and cons for each one. I do like what FIP are doing in terms of the major events but it would be great to get to a situation where it was clearer for every one of the players what they should do.”
With both governing bodies promoting their own set of rankings there is a clear dilemma for the players as they decide which ladder to climb or to straddle both. And Leach admitted: “There has always been a couple of sets of rankings with WPT and FIP but the big difference now is that FIP are putting on these huge events and players don’t want to miss out on them due to the financial rewards and the opportunity to play at places like the Foro Italico and Roland Garros that are steeped in history.
“But for someone like Christian it is a good thing as there are so many more tournaments to go to and to make the most of these opportunities. So we advise him to choose the events that work for him and there are many on the World Padel Tour that are good for him to play as well in this respect.
“Right now we have to sit down and select the best tournaments in relation to which work for the players to compete in and until some kind of agreement is reached between World Padel Tour and FIP we will keep playing both tours.”
While Leach’s role as Team GB men’s team head coach is demanding he still found time to create the ‘Home of Padel’ last year, which has provided a welcome new strand of competition for club players and is proving wildly popular.
It is a project Leach and business partner Javi Serrats are excited to be rolling out in the UK in 2022. “Javi and I created Home of Padel at the beginning of 2021 as an events company primarily to offer an alternative platform to play padel,” explained the former GB team captain.
Leach continued: “The LTA did a great job setting up a lot of tournaments but we felt there was an opportunity to set up an extra level of tournament to what was on offer.
“So we wanted to create something for club level players and in 2021 we went round a series of clubs and organised these events for that level. We were very successful with that tour and experienced a lot of demand for more.
“So this year we have decided to branch out and add another tier which is called the Hop PRO Tour and is for the top-level players in the UK. We’ve also have had a lot of demand for women’s padel and have now created the HOP Women Tour. It is exciting that we are getting all these players coming to us and asking for these events.
“Javi and I have been around tennis and padel for a number of years and we have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t and we want to create events that people enjoy, are social and fun. We give everyone a welcome pack with t-shirt, a drink, a grip, and a key ring and all these kinds of things, and we have great prizes and try to make sure the players come back – and we are very lucky to have the sponsors we do.
“We have Padel Shack, who are an online retailer and have supported us for many years, Green & Purple, Padel Manager, who are building us a padel app so we will have an app platform for all our competitions, which is very exciting for us. Also the Padel School, Wow Hydrate and MVP Padel who are opening up a new club in Oxford very soon and of course Dunlop, who have been very important to us from the beginning.
“We had six tournaments last year and we had the winners from each event coming through to a masters event like the ATP Finals in tennis and that was held at Chelsea Harbour club and was really popular.
“This year we have eight tour events with four HOP PRO events and four HOP Women events and each will have their own masters event at the end of the year with perhaps one or two still to be added.
“Really we are super happy with everything that has happened and have had a lot of positive feedback and we just want to keep developing it and see where it goes.”
For more on HOP click on https://homeofpadel.co.uk/ while for info on the HOP Tour email: tour@homeofpadel.co.uk
