Premier League academy teams have been invited to play in next season's Football League Trophy alongside League One and League Two sides as part of a one-year trial.
At the English Football League's annual general meeting in Portugal this week, chief executives approved plans to allow the top flight's Under-21 sides from category one academies to play in the competition, formerly known as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.
A total of 16 out of the 21 category one academy sides will bring the number of teams in the competition to 64, and in another change from the current knock-out format, there will be 16 regional groups of four for the opening round.
In a statement, the EFL said that it was piloting the changes as part of their "ongoing commitment to creating more and better homegrown players".
Each team in the EFL Trophy will play each other once in the group stage, with the academy team getting just one home game, while knockout stages will be single ties apart from the semi-finals, where there will be two legs.
Giuseppe Labellarte
