Premier League clubs throw spanner in the works of the EFL Trophy

Manchester City have now joined Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Chelsea in rejecting the EFL‘s invitation for their academy team to participate in this season’s EFL Trophy, formerly named Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

Adding to EFL woes in reviving the competition, the cup organisers have now confirmed that other ‘Category One’ academies will be invited in light of the four Premier League giants passing over the opportunity to face League One and League Two teams.

Originally invited were: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland, Swansea, Tottenham Hotspur, West Brom and West Ham.

With the withdrawal of some clubs, the EFL have now shifted their approach to involve other clubs voted ‘Category One’ by the Elite Players Performance Plan, which could see Blackburn, Fulham, Reading and Wolves‘ academies sought to fill the competition to its full complement of 64 teams – 16 teams being the ‘invited clubs’, of which Everton, Stoke, Southampton and West Brom have committed to.

As of last Thursday, Liverpool and Manchester United were considering turning down the invite from the EFL, with no statement from the Premier League itself.

The country’s top division will double the prize money available to £1.95m under the new format, a motion by the EFL to strike up interest in the competition that retains impressive attendance figures for the finals. However, in the first round of the EFL Trophy last season, six ties out of 16 registered attendances below 1,500.

59,630 fans were at April’s final between Barnsley and Oxford United, and the year before Walsall and Bristol City jointly set the record for the competition at 72,315.

What remains is a bigger picture than simple final attendances, as the EFL work to complete the new format’s structure in time for its group stage draw and the competition’s kick-off on August 30.