Franco Stupaczuk, the Argentine padel player, recently broke his silence regarding his decision to participate in the Cancún Premier Padel P2 tournament. This announcement came as a surprise to the padel community, as many top players have chosen to boycott P2 category tournaments as a form of protest against Premier Padel and the International Padel Federation (FIP). Stupaczuk, along with his partner Juan Lebrón, decided to take a different path and register for the tournament just hours before the deadline.
In his statement, Stupaczuk explained that his decision was not made lightly and was influenced by both personal and professional reasons. He consulted with a legal team to analyze the situation and received a detailed document advising against participating in the upcoming tournaments due to potential legal, civil, commercial, and sporting risks. Despite this advice, Stupaczuk chose to share the information with his fellow players, allowing them to make their own informed decisions.
The recent letter from Premier Padel, offering a meeting in Doha with key figures such as Nasser Al Khelaifi, David Sugden, and Luigi Carraro, may have played a role in Stupaczuk and Lebrón’s decision. This meeting aims to find solutions to the ongoing conflict between Premier Padel and the Professional Players Association (PPA). While it remains to be seen if other players will follow Stupaczuk’s lead, his participation in Cancún marks a significant moment in the ongoing dispute.
Cancún will now feature an unusual lineup, with Stupaczuk and Lebrón as the main favorites in a tournament that seemed destined to take place without major names. This decision by the Spanish-Argentine duo could potentially signal a turning point in the conflict between Premier Padel and the PPA, as they navigate the complexities of their contractual obligations and the future of the sport.
This is the text translated:
“Let me speak to you from within and be as honest as possible.
The situation that padel is going through right now is very painful and worrying. We are all saddened not to have been present in Gijón, even so I have to congratulate the people for filling the stands and supporting the sport as I saw it through streaming.
Understanding that not everyone may be familiar with what is happening, I would like to expose two situations that have occurred recently.
A few weeks ago, many of the players made the sad decision (we did not want to get to this point) not to sign up for the Gijón tournament as a measure to try to achieve some sporting changes that were modified with respect to 2024 and that we consider to be very important for the future of our sport.
After what happened, the possibility of whether or not to sign up for the next tournament, which will take place in Cancun next week, was raised.
I assure you that the players want to play all the tournaments and this situation is very delicate.
Personally, I won’t deny that I have had a lot of doubts about what the right decision was.
I really appreciate how lucky we are to have the PPA, our players’ association, which fights every day for the good of the athletes and is fundamental for the progress of our professional careers.
However, I also want to value the effort made by Premier Padel, the FIP, the sponsors and the tournament promoters because they play a very important role in the continued growth of this sport at an international level.
After all that has been said, I freely decided not to be in Gijón (I don’t know if I was wrong) and I now decide to sign up for the Cancun tournament because I trust that this situation can be resolved through dialogue.
Whether it is a mistake or not, I also don’t know, but it is a well-considered decision in which I took all the factors into account.”
