in 2025, Roland-Garros spectators will be drawn randomly

Will there be more fairness in the composition of the public for the Roland-Garros tournament? From the next edition – from May 25 to June 8 – spectators who want to attend the Parisian Grand Slam will have to go through a draw organized on a specific platform.

Tuesday January 7, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) justified this new development in a press release: “Faced with the ever-increasing public enthusiasm for the Roland-Garros tournament, the FFT wanted to evolve its system of selling tickets to the general public in order to always better meet the expectations of buyers. A draw will award fans with purchase slots allowing them to access the ticket office for the 2025 edition of Roland-Garros. »

The number of tickets that can be purchased by the same spectator will also be capped, specifies the federation: “Four tickets maximum for the main courts [Philippe-Chatrier, Suzanne-Lenglen et Simonne-Mathieu] ; four tickets maximum for the side courts from May 25 to May 1^is June and fifteen tickets maximum for the opening week and on the annex courts from June 2 to 8. »

New system to “fight against fraud”

This new system mainly aims to “ensure fairness for all fans in obtaining their tickets, reduce waiting time on the official ticketing platform and (…) fight against fraud and the purchase of tickets by bots [logiciels exécutant des tâches automatisées] »details the FFT.

Registrations for the draw will begin on Monday January 27 on the platform and will end on Sunday February 9. A bailiff will then carry out the draw and participants will be informed of its result during the draw. “first half of March”.

Also in March, the winners of the draw will receive a purchase slot which will allow them to purchase the tickets they want, subject to availability.

Asked Tuesday by Agence France-Presse, the FFT was not able to quantify the total number of tickets that would be offered to spectators drawn at random. In 2024, 670,000 places had been sold for Roland-Garros, according to the federation.

Preliminary investigation into suspicions of corruption

This development comes in the context of suspicions of corruption concerning the ticketing of Roland-Garros, as reported The World in 2023. It follows the complaint of seven leaders and former executives of the FFT accusing its president, Gilles Moretton, as well as his former chief of staff, Hughes Cavallin, and Jean-Luc Barrière, general treasurer, of“having organized the diversion of tournament tickets” to the harm of the instance.

This complaint was initially closed by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), before the general prosecutor's office of the Paris Court of Appeal asked it, in July 2023, to open a preliminary investigation..

Before his re-election in December 2024, Mr. Moretton, interviewed by The Worldclaimed to be unaware of anything: “The only letter I received regarding the PNF was “disclosed, total absence of irregularities”. For me and the federation, the file is closed, I promise you, we have nothing else. »

An exchange of emails dating from the end of July 2023, which The World was able to consult, however, proves that the secretary general of the FFT as well as the ethics committee were well informed of the decision of the attorney general.