Premier League academy teams will be allowed to play in the EFL Trophy next season after radical plans to revamp the competition were approved at the English Football League's annual general meeting in Portugal.

Sixteen of the 21 existing category one academies - most of them belonging to top-flight teams - will be invited to join a 64-team competition which will start with 16 groups of four before becoming a straight knock-out with a final at Wembley.

The Premier League is also understood to have provided £1million to create a total prize fund of £1.95m, with bonuses awarded for each win.

The 16 elite academy sides will be evenly distributed throughout the groups with the 48 clubs from Leagues One and Two, with the whole competition running on a north/south basis until the final.

A league statement read: "EFL Clubs have agreed, at their 2016 summer conference, to pilot a new format for the EFL Trophy as part of their ongoing commitment to creating more and better home grown players.

"The one season trial for season 2016/17 will include 64 teams made up of EFL League One and Two clubs, plus an additional 16 category 1 Premier League academy/under-21 sides.

"Central to the competition will be the introduction of a new group stage format with 16 regional groups of four teams. The top two teams will progress to the knockout stages of the competition with the final staged at Wembley Stadium in April 2017.

"Full details for 2016/17’s competition will be finalised within the next 14 days."

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Each team will play each other once in the group stage, with the academy team getting just one home game. The knock-out stages will be single ties apart from the semi-finals, where there will be two legs.

The competition is currently without a title sponsor as Johnstone's Paints' contract expired last season, with Bristol City beating Oxford in the last JPT final.

The EFL announced that Ian Lenagan, the owner of Super League rugby league team Wigan Warriors and former director of Oxford, had been voted in as its new chairman, replacing Greg Clarke.

But as with the vote on the EFL Trophy proposal, it is thought that the vote was far from unanimous with several clubs voicing their displeasure at the process.

There was also understood to have been some criticism of Lenagan's record as an ambassador for League Two clubs whilst at Oxford.