The Football League Trophy

Or the EFL Trophy as it is now called.

For many years the Football League Trophy (the Johnstone's Paint as it became known) went along in its own quiet way, the early round fixtures not always being watched by too many supporters but often offering a family-friendly and affordable way to watch competitive action under the floodlights.

I've written on the blog before that it was Coventry City's offer of £5 tickets to their home matches in the competition that got me thinking about a site where similar offers and initiatives were publicised.

Over 30,000 watched the Sky Blues area final against Crewe Alexandra in 2013 and the last two Wembley finals have been watched by a combined total of over 130,000 people.

Competitions are no longer allowed to have their own quiet place in the football calendar, however, and the EFL (itself re-branded from the historic Football League) decided in the summer that the format of the Trophy would be changed to include 64 teams, up from 48 and to move to a group stage for the opening round.

I would have had no problem with the first part of those changes (previously 16 teams had byes to then make a 32-team knockout) if National League clubs had been invited to enter but the clubs who will now compete are actually from the Premier League and Championship and who will be allowed to field Under-23 players.

Quite rightly, in my opinion, there has been a lot of anger about a move which could well pave the way for 'B' teams to be shoehorned into the pyramid in future years, all under the misleading premise that it will somehow benefit the national team at some point.

A number of Premier League clubs have actually turned down the chance to compete and the group stage draw (which also increases the playing burden on clubs with extra matches) has also thrown up some gems such as Shrewsbury having to travel to Middlesbrough (Under-23's) on a Tuesday night.

Sadly, Coventry City were one of the clubs who agreed to the proposal and the Sky Blues are also guilty of promoting their fixture against West Ham United without mention of the fact that it is not the Hammers' first-team who will be attending.

For my own small protest I won't be putting details of ticket offers for matches involving U23/Academy/B teams on Twitter although I will happily say that Gillingham are running a 'Floodlight Football for a Fiver' promotion for their match with Luton Town on Tuesday 30 August and that AFC Wimbledon are donating net profits from the game against Swansea City U-23's (the Dons have actually said that fans, if they do attend any of the group stage matches should do so against Plymouth Argyle) to local charities.