• Sixteen academies set to join what was known as Johnstone’s Paint Trophy • EFL also announces that Ian Lenagan will replace Greg Clarke as chairman

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.

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

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The Premier League is also understood to have provided £1m 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.

Each team will play each other once in the group stage, with the academy team getting just one home game. The knockout 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 the Johnstone’s Paints contract expired last season, with Barnsley beating Oxford in the last JPT final.

The EFL announced that Ian Lenagan, the owner of Super League rugby league team Wigan Warriors and a 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 it was far from unanimous with several clubs voicing their displeasure at the process. It is also understood that there was some criticism of Lenagan’s record as an ambassador for League Two clubs while at Oxford.

The clubs approved plans to proceed with an initiative to boost the number of black and minority ethnic (BAME) coaches and managers in the game.

Clubs will now have to interview at least one qualified BAME candidate for any coaching position within their academies and provide details of the recruitment process to the league.

The above will also apply for first-team appointments but on a voluntary basis at first, with 10 clubs agreeing to sign a voluntary code.