Sixteen invited academies will take part in the restructured tournament in a move that could destroy the lower league system as we know it
Two years have passed since FA chairman Greg Dyke first mooted the idea of reserve teams being admitted into the Football League.
That plan of inserting a new ‘League Three’ at the base of the professional pyramid – comprising 10 Premier League reserve teams along with 10 clubs from the National League – was shouted down almost as soon as it was suggested.
The idea that B teams should play on a competitive level with sides in the divisions below is, at best, patronising and, at worst, an arrogant dismissal of the most-watched lower-league system in world football.
Yet we now appear to have set foot on the slippery slope towards exactly that.
As was confirmed this week, the newly-launched EFL Trophy will replace the much-maligned Football League – or, as it is more commonly known, the Johnstone’s Paint – Trophy.
In announcing this ground-breaking news, Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey hailed the chance to “rejuvenate this competition and also assist the development of the very best young players in English football.”
It is precisely this elitist assumption that Football League clubs should be excited at the opportunity to help the Premier League’s young talent which many find so irksome.
Following Aston Villa’s relegation last season, there are now only six Premier League clubs never to have set foot in the Football League.
Champions Leicester City were only promoted in 2014, while Manchester City – now one of the richest clubs in the world – were in the third tier less than 20 years ago.
Southampton – so often cited as the model on how all clubs should be run – were in League One as recently as 2011, while Swansea and Bournemouth have both worked their way up from the very bottom of the ladder.
The rest, meanwhile, have yo-yoed with regularity.
Such an array of back-stories simply makes this apparent top-flight snobbery even more galling.
For if the Football League is the fabric of the English game, then the Premier League is merely the embroidery on top.
Every club in the country, no matter how lowly their standing, has ambitions of their own.
It is these ambitions that have seen the likes of Bradford City reach the League Cup final in 2012, Sheffield United compete in an FA Cup semi in 2013 and Millwall go one better in 2004.
But to focus on the occasional cup run would be to do them a disservice.
The first two teams in that list alone attracted average crowds of 18,090 and 19,803 respectively last season, numbers that mean they could comfortably compete in the Premier League – the division they all aspire to reach.
The fact that Football League sides actually voted for this change is a worry.
In reality, though, they had very little choice.
Premier League solidarity payments – shared each year by all teams throughout the divisions in an attempt to level the financial playing field – are integral to many clubs’ survival.
As their monopoly on the football pyramid extends, then, the potential consequences of voting against the top-flight clubs are simply not worth risking for many.
Furthermore, if the revamp is truly intended to rejuvenate the tournament then they could not have done a worse job.
The FA have already had to impose sanctions in the past to stop Football League clubs from playing weakened teams in the competition.
And now it appears that Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs – as well as Manchester United and Liverpool – will all be declining the offer to participate.
Understandably so, given the actual benefit of the new tournament format to any clubs who do decide to take part is questionable.
The proposal from the aforementioned Harvey that it “will help us deliver more and better home-grown players which will deliver benefits to the national team”, is misguided.
Should they reach the final, an U21 or lower-league team would still only play a maximum of eight matches.
It seems highly unlikely, then, that football pundits will hark back to a 2016/17 EFL Trophy final between Everton U21s and Yeovil Town to credit English success at the 2026 World Cup.
The main concern, though, is that if the experiment is indeed deemed a success, then it will simply be used as a stepping stone towards Dyke’s original plan.
The chasm between the lower leagues and the Premier League would then become even greater, with the bloated result of an added division and extra teams making the path to the very top even trickier to traverse.
Should that happen, then the English football pyramid would be more akin to a trapezium with the pinnacle separated from the body beneath.
The key point here, though, is that as long as top-flight clubs are allowed to hoover up young talent without fulfilling their development through first-team opportunities then the pool of English talent will remain shallow.
Dele Alli, for example, has only risen to stardom with Tottenham having gained regular, competitive experience with MK Dons for 18 months beforehand.
A handful of glorified reserve games, then, are unlikely to propel the next generation of youngsters to greater heights than the already-established traditional route.
Instead, the responsibility has merely been passed on to the lower leagues to try and help address a problem which is entirely of the Premier League’s making.
