Now, for the third time, the paddle sport has submitted an application to join the Swedish Sports Confederation.
Decisions will be made by the union later this spring, but chairman Björn Eriksson does not want to give any promises.
- The problem is that there are a lot of criteria that must be met. This year we have eight sports that want to join the association, for example E-sports, Icelandic horses and Friskis and Svettis, but it is quite a lot of work required before you can become member.
Grows record strong
Previously, the Swedish Sports Confederation wanted padel to become part of the tennis or squash association, but the sport has wanted to go its own way and now has over 20,000 members in about a hundred associations around the country.
According to the paddle association's statistics, almost 200,000 bookings were made of paddle courses in Sweden in 2018, last year that number had grown to one million.
All major sports are included
The Swedish Sports Confederation consists of 70 special sports federations and distributes state support, among other things.
Every other year you have your "meeting", a kind of parliament the new unions can be elected.
The affiliates receive help with organization and child and youth initiatives, or as Björn Eriksson puts it:
- It's a kind of family you get into.