“Who won in the Checkatrade Trophy the other night?”… is a question that has never been asked by anyone.
The competition relaunched this season to include under-23 teams from Premier League and Championship clubs, but the new format hasn’t proved to be a big hit with the fans according to attendance figures.
On Tuesday, the English Football League announced fines totalling £60,000 for 12 clubs who contravened rules over fielding their strongest teams in this season’s Checkatrade Trophy.
Luton and Portsmouth were fined £15,000 apiece for three separate offences, while Bradford, Blackpool, Bristol Rovers, Charlton, Fleetwood, MK Dons, Millwall, Peterborough, Sheffield United and Southend all received a £3,000 fine each.
The teams breached Competition Rule 7.3 by ‘not starting with at least five players who started the league fixture immediately before or after the Trophy game, or the five players who have started the most league and cup matches to that point in the season.’
Unsurprisingly, the news hasn’t gone down well with fans, particularly considering Luton were fined for fielding supposedly weakened teams in two matches they won, against Gillingham and West Brom’s U21s.
@EFL Jesus Christ lads
— Lloyd Griffith (@LloydGriffith) November 16, 2016
@EFL ah fining your own clubs for playing youngsters. You lot are on form today.
— Against League 3 (@AgainstLeague3) November 16, 2016
@EFL As if, what a fucking joke. Joke of a competition, joke of an organisation.
— SUFC JW (@Scunny_JW) November 16, 2016
@EFL You’re unprofessional, lack class and empathy and are going nowhere.
This competition can’t be consigned to the scrap heap soon enough.— Simon Darwen (@Darwen88) November 16, 2016
@EFL You’ve just sealed the competition’s fate. Blimey. Incompetence on a grandiose scale. Check out the job ads?
— Wendy (@wmichallat) November 16, 2016
@EFL So you’re fining teams for bringing young english players through. What an absolute joke of a competition. Should be ashamed.
— Russell (@06Russ) November 16, 2016
@EFL This just proves that the only interest of this god-awful revamp was to benefit bigger clubs rather than youth development
— Jordan (@Jorc94) November 16, 2016
Luton Town FA Gary Sweet responded to the fine with a statement, admitting the club are “dismayed” by the EFL’s decision.
“We entered those teams with our eyes wide open and we accept that we would be fined for doing so. While we don’t feel we should be paying ‘fees’ to get our youngsters experience, we view that as an investment in their development.
“We are staggered, however, that we have been fined the maximum amount for our first offence, which was winning away from home at a club from the division above with half-a-dozen first-team regulars in their team.
“We played nine graduates of our academy in that game at Gillingham, and seven against a West Brom side containing four players, two of whom who were internationals and had been transferred for several million pounds, and still beat both.
“We believe our team selection has added value to a competition that was dying last season and is now – with low three-figure attendances at many matches so far – well and truly on its last legs.
“We had the second highest attendance in our one home game against a fellow senior EFL club, which we believe was only because we were playing our youngsters.
“We acknowledge our breach of the competition rules, but does our ‘offence’ make a mockery of the competition any more than a club substituting their first-choice goalkeeper after just a couple of minutes of the game to ensure they met the five-player starting rule.
“Which is more in keeping with the spirit of the game? Which supports the competition’s ethos of promoting young talent more?
“That is clearly disingenuous and by fining us this amount the EFL is effectively saying that promoting young talent is only acceptable if they’re with an EPPP1 club, and they are depriving their own member clubs’ young players access to first-team football.”
