2024–25 EFL Trophy

2024–25 EFL Trophy
Tournament details
Country	England; Wales
Teams	64
	← 2023–24 2025–26 →

The 2023–24 EFL Trophy, known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is the 44th season in the history of the competition, and is a knock-out tournament for clubs in EFL League One and League Two, the third and fourth tiers of the English football league system, as well as the "Academy teams" of 16 Premier League teams.^[1]

The defending champions were Peterborough United who defeated Wycombe Wanderers 2–1 in the previous season's final.

Participating clubs[edit]

48 clubs from League One and League Two.
16 invited Category One Academy teams.

	League One	League Two	Academies
Clubs	Barnsley Birmingham City Blackpool Bolton Wanderers Bristol Rovers Burton Albion Cambridge United Charlton Athletic Crawley Town Exeter City Huddersfield Town Leyton Orient Lincoln City Mansfield Town Northampton Town Peterborough United Reading Rotherham United Shrewsbury Town Stevenage Stockport County Wigan Athletic Wrexham Wycombe Wanderers	Accrington Stanley AFC Wimbledon Barrow Bradford City Bromley Carlisle United Cheltenham Town Chesterfield Colchester United Crewe Alexandra Doncaster Rovers Fleetwood Town Gillingham Grimsby Town Harrogate Town Milton Keynes Dons Morecambe Newport County Notts County Port Vale Salford City Swindon Town Tranmere Rovers Walsall	Arsenal Aston Villa Brighton & Hove Albion Chelsea Crystal Palace Everton Fulham Leicester City Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Newcastle United Nottingham Forest Tottenham Hotspur West Ham United Wolverhampton Wanderers
Total	24	24	16

Eligibility criteria for players[edit]

For EFL clubs^[2]

Minimum of four qualifying outfield players in their starting XI. A qualifying outfield player was one who met any of the following requirements:
- Any player who started the previous or following first-team fixture.
- Any player who is in the top 10 players at the club who has made the most starting appearances in league and domestic cup competitions this season.
- Any player with forty or more first-team starting appearances in their career, including International matches.
- Any player on loan from a Premier League club or any EFL Category One Academy club.
A club can play any eligible goalkeeper in the competition.
Any player out on a long loan term at a National League, National League North, or National League South team can play as long as the loaning team agree to allow the player to return for the match.

For invited teams^[2]

Minimum of six players in the starting line-up who are aged under 21 on 30 June 2024.
Maximum of two players on the team sheet who are aged over 21 and have also made forty or more senior appearances.

Competition format[edit]

Group stage

Sixteen groups of four teams will be organised on a regionalised basis.
All groups will include one invited club.
All clubs will play each other once, either home or away (academy sides will play all group matches away from home).
Clubs will be awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw.
In the event of a drawn game (after 90 minutes), a penalty shoot-out will be held with the winning team earning an additional point.
Clubs expelled from the EFL will be knocked out of the tournament automatically.
The top two teams in each group will progress to the knockout stage.

Knockout stage

Rounds 2 and 3 of the competition will be drawn on a regionalised basis.
In Round 2, the group winners will be seeded and the group runners-up will be unseeded in the draw.
In Round 2, teams who played in the same group as each other in the group stage will be kept apart.^[3]

Group stage[edit]

The group stage draw was announced on 24 June 2024, with the Academy teams being scheduled to be drawn on 27 June 2024 on Sky Sports News.^[4]