What is the EFL Trophy? The format of the competition involving Wrexham and Premier League youth teams is explained

From the top of the pyramid to the lowest levels of English football, fans always have the opportunity to watch their teams play for trophies across multiple competitions.

While the most dominant clubs at the top, like Manchester City, fight for trophies galore, the English Football League (EFL) ensures that the clubs further down the list also have a chance to compete for titles in a real way.

In addition to their league games, Premier League clubs also take part in domestic knockout competitions such as the FA Cup and EFL Cup. However, clubs further down the rankings need something different to ensure they have a real chance of playing for the cup with the richest teams dominating the knockout tournaments for which they are qualified.

Therefore, the leagues organized the EFL Trophy, a competition specifically tailored to clubs in the lower leagues. The Sporting News details what the tournament is, how it is formatted, who can take part, how it differs from other domestic competitions – and how Premier League teams were still able to take part.

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What is the EFL Trophy?

The EFL Trophy, currently known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a knockout competition organized by the EFL that has been run since its inaugural event in 1981.

In the current EFL Trophy format, only certain lower league clubs are eligible to take part in the competition, as well as academy teams from clubs higher up the English football pyramid, including the Premier League.

There are also important format rules that limit which players clubs can use in the competition during EFL Trophy games.

Which clubs take part in the EFL Trophy? Conditions of participation and format

The competition makes 64 teams eligible to take part in the EFL Trophy open to all League One (third tier) and League Two (fourth tier) clubs as well as U21 teams from Premier League and Championship clubs.

Additionally, to maintain the integrity of the competition and prevent teams from over-rotating their lineups, all EFL clubs' starting XIs in the EFL Trophy must consist of four players who meet one of the following criteria:

• Has started the previous first team game or started the following first team game
• Among the club's top 10 players for starts in league and domestic cups this season
• Has made 40 or more appearances in a club's first team during his career, including international matches
• On loan from a Premier League club (or another club with EFL Category 1 status)

These rules do not apply to invited teams, which usually apply via the academy's website. Instead, they must have six players aged 21 or younger in their starting lineup at the start of the current season. And They cannot have more than two players aged 21 or older who have made 40 or more senior national team appearances in their careers.

Tournament format

The EFL Trophy comprises a group stage and a knockout stage.

In the group stage, all 64 teams are divided into geographically limited groups of four, with eight groups in the Northern Section and eight groups in the Southern Section.

From then on, the top two teams in each group qualify for the round of 32, and the knockout round is also geographically limited until the semi-finals, in which all remaining four teams are drawn and there is the possibility of playing against one of the three potential teams to compete against.

Like many of English football's major knockout trophies, the EFL Trophy final is played at Wembley Stadium.

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Is the EFL Trophy different to the EFL Cup?

Yes, the EFL Trophy is a completely independent competition from the more popular EFL Cup (or League Cup as it is sometimes called, also known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons). They have completely different eligibility requirements for participants as well as different tournament formats.

While the EFL Cup is open to the 92 clubs in the top four tiers of English football, the EFL Trophy is open to lower division clubs and higher division U21 teams.

Additionally, the EFL Cup does not have the same starting line-up restrictions as explained above for the EFL Trophy.

The EFL Cup also does not include a group stage. Instead, it is a single-elimination knockout competition (although the semi-final is traditionally played over two games).

Previous EFL Trophy winners

While the restriction to just the two lower tiers of professional English football obviously allows for greater variation in winners from year to year, it is still dominated by teams higher up the league standings.

We can see a clear separation in competitiveness between the third and fourth tiers of the football pyramid. In fact, a fourth tier club has only won the EFL Trophy six times in the tournament's history.

The most successful club in the history of the EFL Trophy is Bristol City, the only team to win the competition three times, while twelve other clubs have won it twice. While winning this trophy is a recognizable honor, winning it multiple times also suggests that the club has been stuck in the lower echelons of English professional football long enough to compete there regularly, which isn't exactly a badge of honor.

Wrexham won this competition back in 2005, beating Southend United 2-0 in the final.

The winners of the fourth division are written in italics in the table below. Brackets () indicate the total number of trophy wins.

* EFL League One was known as Division Three from 1958 to 1992 and Division Two from 1992 to 2004, while EFL League Two was known as Division Four from 1958 to 1992 and Division Three from 1992 to 2004.
**The EFL Trophy allowed entry to clubs in the second tier of English football for the first two seasons of the competition until the current entry restrictions came into effect for the 1983/84 tournament.