The International Padel Federation (FIP) has announced the launch of a new inaugural Intercontinental Cup competitionequivalent to the Laver Cup of tennis and the Ryder Cup of golf, starting with the first edition in 2025, as they have made public in a statement.
The padel competition will take place every two yearswhere players from the Americas will compete against European players. Following the success of the 2024 FIP World Championship, the new Intercontinental Cup pursues the goal of “showcasing the talents of the participants and providing new opportunities for the players.”
The new championship marks the path of padel towards its inclusion in the Olympic Games. The new format will be organized with the support of the continental federations of the FIP, Pádel Europe and Pádel América, so The organization of the competition will rotate between the venues in America and Europe.
The matches will be held simultaneously with a men’s and a women’s competition, with a prize pool of up to 700,000 eurosreflecting the FIP’s commitment to growing and developing the sport on an international scale, continually raising the profile of professional padel.
The padel business will amount to 6,000 million euros in 2026
The president of the federation, Luigi Carro, who was unanimously re-elected for a new professional mandate in October 2024 He added that “the new Intercontinental Cup competition responds to the incredible global popularity of padel and an unprecedented demand for new competition formats from fans.”
Outside of the Intercontinental Cup, FIP’s reach in 2023 broke records with 160 tournaments and up to 6,000 registered playersdistributed between the Premier Padel, Cupra FIP Tour and FIP Promises circuits, and with Spain as the protagonist in all disciplines. At the professional level, there were 4,874 players from 72 different countries.
The padel business will amount to 6,000 million euros in 2026according to the report Global Padel Report 2023prepared by Deloitte. New regions in which paddle tennis is emerging, the increase in the number of courts available and its professionalization, are some of the variables that the consulting firm takes into account to justify its forecast.
By countries, Spain leads the number of operational padel courts, with 15,300 courts after inaugurating 1,300 in 2022. Italy, with 6,470 lanes, and Sweden, with 4,200 lanes, close the top 3. Behind them, France (1,506), the Netherlands (1,445), Belgium (1,395) and Portugal (1,010) have over a thousand operational runways.
