Despite the players criticism — Portuguese Padel Federation joins WPT Next

The Portuguese Padel Federation (FPP) has joined the WPT and FEP initiative, joining the World Padel Tour Next project. 

Weeks ago, the WPT circuit and the Spanish Padel Federation announced the creation of a new category of tournaments within the circuit called WPT Next.

This tournament type will be aimed at players between the lowest categories of federative padel and professional players. It will be divided into four types of tournaments: Next Diamond, Next Emerald, Next Ruby, and Next Sapphire. Each of them is differentiated by category and prizes. 

When announcing Next, World Padel Tour urged other national padel federations to join the proposal. 

Now, the Portuguese Padel Federation is joining the initiative, thus extending the agreement to the entire Iberian peninsula. As it will happen in Spain, all WPT Next tournaments organized in Portugal will award WPT points.

The agreement between WPT and FEP didn't go down very well among the Spanish players due to the legal battle between the circuit and the players. Immediately after the announcement, the Players' Association issued a statement expressing its disagreement, and a week ago, in an exclusive interview with Padel Alto, the president of the PPA, Alejandro Galan, referred to the matter: 

"It is an interesting agreement for the players, and I understand that, but there are certain things that hurt all the players. Everybody knows that we are being sued for a huge amount of money, something unimaginable, something that has been reported to the European Commission, and for FEP to support that is what hurts. It could have been handled differently, and we have been hurt by how things have turned out". the world number one said in the interview with Padel Alto.