What is the FIP World Cup?
The FIP World Cup is padel's World Championships, which have been held every two years since 1992 and dominated by the sport's traditional powerhouses Argentina and Spain.
This year, the FIP World Cup takes place from 2-7 November and will be held in Doha, Qatar - as was the previous edition in 2024 when Argentina won their 12th men's trophy and Spain's women won for the sixth successive time.
The men's and women's draws for the 2026 event will both comprise of 16 nations. The format will be four seeded groups of four, with each group winner progressing to semi-finals.
Great Britain will bid to secure one of the places in each draw in Doha when they compete at the European qualifiers in Madrid from 22-26 September.
FIP World Cup 2026 - the qualifying process
Ten men's and 10 women's teams automatically qualified for November's FIP World Cup by virtue of their performances at last year's event.
Men: Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Italy, UAE, Brazil, France, Chile, Sweden, Qatar (host nation).
Women: Spain, Argentina, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Brazil, Belgium, Qatar (host nation).
The remaining six places are decided by four continental qualifying competitions, added this year due to many more nations entering the competition as the sport explodes worldwide.
As well as Europe's, the other regional qualifiers are: North and Central America (won by USA and Mexico in both men's and women's in Toronto in early August), South America in Asunción (20-22 August) and Asia-Africa in Kuwait (22-27 September).
The European qualifiers
The European qualification tournament will take place at Pádel G24 club in Madrid and include 55 national teams from 29 countries, competing for four places (two men’s, two women’s) in the FIP World Cup draw.
Great Britain will feature in both the men’s and women’s draws, with the players to be announced soon.
Men's entrants: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Kosovo, Lithuania, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.
Women's entrants: Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Kosovo, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.
The precise format of the European qualifier will be announced nearer the start date.
The 2024 European Championships in Sardinia were the de facto regional qualifiers for the previous FIP World Cup. There, Great Britain teams missed out on qualification by a whisker, with narrow defeats to the Netherlands proving crucial for both teams.
FIP World Cup history
After the Spanish, Argentinian and Uruguayan padel federations got together in 1991 and founded the International Padel Federation (FIP), it took them only a year to organise the sport's first ever World Championships, held in Seville.
Argentina won both men's and women's titles in that debut year, 1992, and won both in the next two editions as well in 1994 and 1996.
Since then, the titles have been shared with padel's other global superpower Spain. The current tally reads:
- Men's titles: 12 - Argentina, 4 - Spain
- Women's titles: 9 - Spain, 8 - Argentina
Every final in the 16 editions of the championships has been a Spain v Argentina duel, except in 2012 when Spain didn't enter, and in the men's final of 2006, when Spain were stunned in the semi-finals by Brazil.
Recent years have seen other European countries grow in strength as the sport develops worldwide, with the likes of France, Portugal, Italy, Sweden and Belgium reaching the semi-finals.
Britain's last appearance at the World Padel Championships was in 2022, when the men's team finished 14th out of 17 teams in Dubai.