Who runs padel: the FIP and the professional tours.

The world body: the FIP

The International Padel Federation (FIP) says it was founded in Madrid on 12 July 1991 by the padel associations of Argentina, Spain and Uruguay. A 2023 article in the Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal names the Spaniard Julio Alegria Artiach as its first president. At its 36th General Assembly in Madrid in October 2026, marking 35 years, the founding federations were joined by Mexico, which the FIP called the birthplace of padel, to sign a symbolic constitution.

Members, as the FIP counts them

• 100 national federations after 14 joined at the 35th General Assembly in Acapulco in November 2025.
• 115 after 15 more joined at the 36th General Assembly in Madrid on 12 October 2026.

The FIP president is Luigi Carraro, who is also vice chairman of Premier Padel, according to the FIP and Premier Padel. The October 2026 General Assembly named adaptive padel a priority.

National bodies

United States: USA Padel

The United States Padel Association renamed itself USA Padel on 29 June 2026. In its own announcement it says it was founded in 1993 as the American Paddle Association, took the USPA name in 2007, is based in Austin, Texas, and sanctions more than 250 tournaments a year. Which body recognises it is told two ways: older USPA pages name the American Padel Federation, while the 2026 USA Padel pages name the FIP and Padel America.

Great Britain: the LTA

The LTA, tennis's governing body in Britain, also governs padel there. The Padel Paper dates this to November 2020. The LTA's own padel history says it announced in 2019 that it would integrate British Padel and was recognised as the governing body in 2020.

The professional tours

The FIP history lists the circuits in order: the Padel Pro Tour, run by private organisers, from 2005 for eight seasons; the World Padel Tour (WPT) from 2013 to 2023; an FIP international circuit from 2019, renamed the CUPRA FIP Tour in 2020; and Premier Padel from 2022, the official global tour governed by the FIP and supported by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI). The WPT was run by Setpoint Events, owned by Damm, according to the FIP.

From the World Padel Tour to Premier Padel: each side

In 2022 the FIP partnered with QSI to launch Premier Padel, founded with the Professional Padel Association. A dispute with the WPT followed, as Sportcal reported on 21 November 2022:

• The WPT's case: the FIP, the Professional Padel Association and QSI were competing unfairly by setting up a parallel tour to exclude and replace it, and the FIP had abandoned its role as an impartial non-profit regulator. It asked for interim measures, including suspending Premier Padel.
• The FIP's and the players' association's case: in May 2022 they complained to the European Commission that the WPT's player contracts were anti-competitive. The FIP's president said the November 2022 rulings settled doubts about the sport's future.
• The rulings: Madrid Commercial Court No. 15 refused the WPT's request for interim measures, finding that its exclusivity and blackout terms gave it significant control over the sport and that professional players have a right to play other tours. The Madrid arbitration court (CIMA) rejected the WPT's breach-of-contract claim against players taking part in Premier Padel.

The 2023 deal

On 24 August 2023 QSI, the FIP, the Professional Padel Association and Damm announced that QSI would acquire the WPT's business assets, subject to regulatory approval. The two tours ran separately through 2023 and from 2024 became one global tour named Premier Padel, governed by the FIP; the FIP said the deal also settled the parties' disputes. Spain's competition authority, the CNMC, is reported in a search summary of its file C/1430/23 to have approved the acquisition with commitments, including no player exclusivity clauses for tournaments in Spain; that file was not opened and the approval date was not confirmed.

The players' view, 2025

In February 2025, Padel Alto reported, the Professional Padel Association said the top 100 men had skipped the Premier Padel P2 in Gijon. It denied promoting a boycott and criticised the FIP for acting as both regulator and Premier Padel's partner, which it called a conflict of interest, and for unclear participation and ranking rules. No FIP or Premier Padel response appeared in the article.

The 2026 season, as announced

Premier Padel and the FIP announced 26 tournaments in 18 countries for 2026, with Majors in Doha (April), Rome (June), Paris at Stade Roland-Garros (September) and Mexico (Acapulco, late November), and Finals in Barcelona from 7 to 13 December for the top 16 men and women in the FIP Race Ranking. The calendar later changed: on 7 May 2026 Premier Padel and the FIP announced, referring to the Qatar Major's postponement and citing operational disruptions due to the war in Iran, that the Kuwait event would be upgraded to a Major for 2026 only; Wikipedia lists the Qatar Major as cancelled. The Kuwait Major (26 to 31 October) was under way on 26 October 2026, and the Mexico Major and the Finals had not been played. Premier Padel's chief executive is David Sugden.

Below Premier Padel sits the CUPRA FIP Tour, which the FIP says spans 59 host countries, and the FIP Promises junior circuit. How the FIP ranks players is on rankings explained; where padel stands with the IOC is on the Olympic and Paralympic programme. The founding story in Acapulco is on padel from Acapulco.