In Asunción, Paraguay, the FIP General Assembly welcomes 10 new member countries. Carraro: “United and cohesive, we have won crucial challenges and will build our future this way”
May 17, 2024
United, constructive, cohesive. The 33rd General Assembly of the International Padel Federation, held in Asunción, Paraguay, once again demonstrated that the FIP and national federations are one entity, working in perfect harmony and moving towards an increasingly bright future. With about 75% of eligible voters present, President Luigi Carraro opened the proceedings by thanking the Paraguayan Olympic Committee and its president—also an IOC Member— Camilo Perez, who has always been a strong supporter of FIP’s activities. “In this assembly, here with all of you, I feel even more strongly that sense of unity that has brought us to where we are today. It’s true”, continued President Carraro, “up to now, we have risen to the challenges we have faced together, thanks to that teamwork which, with all of your help, has made the difference, transforming padel into a global phenomenon. To all of you, to myself, and to everyone who loves our sport, I want to emphasize that numerous other challenges await us, with the ambition to reach even greater heights, an ambition that has characterized our work so far. And I want to say it once more: the FIP is your home, the FIP is you, the FIP is all of us united by one passion: padel”, concluded the head of the FIP.
UNANIMITY There is no doubt about the true measure of an assembly, whether political or sporting: the voting ritual. All votes of the day on the agenda items took on the dimensions of a plebiscite. Every call to vote received unanimous support, including the very important one on the approval of the reform of the FIP Statute, which the Executive Board presented to the assembly members. Absolute unanimity in the vote is a great satisfaction for the International Federation, as it represents a true springboard for present and future projects.
A 3D FIP Carraro then thanked the three continental commissions: Asia-Pacific, European, and Pan American, highlighting the importance of team competitions, promoting the development of grassroots sports as well as elite and professional sports, and encouraging federations to support and organize tournaments of the CUPRA FIP Tour circuit, the global fabric of the discipline, which takes on greater importance in light of the new FIP Ranking, one of the great and eagerly awaited novelties of 2024. A 2024 that has materialized with an increasingly ‘3D’ FIP in terms of sports competitions: in addition to the strengthened and enhanced CUPRA FIP Tour, this is the year of Premier Padel and a unique, extraordinary professional circuit that is showcasing its potential on courts around the world. Not to forget the ‘third dimension’ of the International Federation: the men’s and women’s team competitions that have received such strong participation requests that in some cases, regulatory changes were necessary to expand the number of participating teams.
NEW FIP STRUCTURE The new structure of the FIP was presented, now boasting three locations: Rome (Italy), Madrid (Spain), and Lausanne (Switzerland). The latter will be the official FIP headquarters, at the Maison du Sport International (MSI), home to most international federations, in the ‘Olympic capital’.
NEW MEMBERS The General Assembly ratified the entry of ten new federations into the FIP:
- Algeria
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Ghana
- Greece
- Indonesia
- Kenya
- Mauritania
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Morocco
The FIP will therefore consist of 81 federations.
PAN AMERICAN GAMES Padel will be part of the program for the Junior Pan American Games in Asunción 2025: an event with 4,500 athletes from various sports, marking the debut of padel as a medal discipline in a continental multi-sport event with an Olympic perspective, after being a demonstration sport at the ODESUR Games 2022 in Asunción and having participated in the European Games 2023 in Krakow (Poland), considered a real precursor to the Olympic Games.
WORLD PADEL REPORT President Carraro presented the first World Padel Report, related to FIP activities and produced by the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department, the Federation’s research center. A comprehensive effort, a true wide-angle snapshot of padel worldwide, particularly appreciated by the delegates in the assembly. The study shows that, compared to the last assembly (Rome, July 2023), over 220 FIP tournaments have been held worldwide, with another 200 scheduled to take place by the end of 2024. Over 2,000 players, from 60 countries, have participated in FIP tournaments since the beginning of 2024.
SOCIAL AND DIGITAL Since January 2024, there have been 800,000 unique users on the website www.padelFIP.com, from 208 countries, with 10 million views. Additionally, since the beginning of the year, FIP’s social profiles have seen a 70% increase in followers and 9.7 million reach.
