The padel war reaches its peak: aggressive letter from Premier to players... and the boycott is extended indefinitely

The 'padel war' that broke out last week with the refusal of the 50 best couples in the world to compete in the Premier P2 in Gijón has reached its peak this Tuesday. The trigger has been a new letter from the Premier Padel Circuit in which it has raised the threats to the players. Faced with this, the protagonists of the game, united in the Players Association (PPA) and entrenched in their requests to improve the sport of 20x10, have taken the decision to extend the boycott that will also affect the Cancun tournament.

Let's start from the starting point: the boycott of the top male couples in the ranking of the Gijón tournament - disputed this week with all the top female couples and very low-ranked male couples - which took the tournament organizers and, especially, Premier Padel, by surprise .

In response, the major circuit, successor to the World Padel Tour since 2024, sent a letter to the players through its law firm (Cuatrecasas) with a series of legal warnings to which the players did not give in.

Since then, the tug-of-war between the PPA and the circuit has continued and, on Tuesday, in response to a letter from the association with the players' requests sent to the tour on Friday, Premier has issued a harsh statement raising the tone against what it considers an "illegal boycott."

"The illegal collective boycott by certain players marks one of the darkest and most self-destructive days in the history of padel," Premier said in a letter in which it describes the players' behaviour as "shameful, incoherent, contradictory and far from reality" as well as "harmful to the financial and sporting position of the very players it claims to represent."

"Some people may not realize that this is not a reality show or a game. The damage to the city of Gijón, to sport, to Olympic aspirations, to promoters and business partners is real," concludes the threatening letter.

Following the harsh letter, the 100 best players on the circuit, gathered around the PPA, have agreed to extend the boycott until a solution is found to all the requests made and, according to them, not satisfied by the circuit. This implies that they will not play P2 tournaments (the smallest category below P1 and Major) until their requests are met, which means a new absence of the big stars in the Cancun tournament draw.

It should be noted that the players do not plan to give up the P1 and Major tournaments, as they are clinging to an alleged clause in the contract that indicates that it is not obligatory to participate in the P2 tournaments as opposed to the obligation to do so in the P1 and Major tournaments. Premier does not think the same, and responded to this with the following sentence in its letter: "The PPA asserts with absolutely no authority that players are not obliged to play in the P2 tournaments, which is simply and clearly demonstrably false from a legal and factual point of view."

From the players' point of view, the pressures from Premier Padel lead to a 'second part' of the conflict settled with the collapse of the World Padel Tour at the end of 2023.

In this complicated situation, it is worth noting that the PPA collects the requests of the top 100 players, which is a complex matter, since at certain points the complaints between the top players and those in the lower zone are completely opposite. As this medium has been able to find out, there are players in the lower zone of the top-100 who are frightened by the consequences of rowing against the current , something that until now only a very small group of players have accepted.

As an alternative, some of those lower-division players who did not sign a contract with Premier League - accepting worse conditions than those who did - have opted to sign a contract with A1, an alternative circuit founded by businessman Fabrice Pastor who could now 'fish in troubled waters'.

Premier Padel says it will not back down from blackmail, the players seem more than willing to go all the way... the carnage for the popular sport could be brutal at a time of dizzying growth in which it is pursuing the great dream of becoming an Olympic sport.