Английская Википедия:2023–24 EFL Trophy

Шаблон:Infobox football tournament season The 2023–24 EFL Trophy, known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is the 42nd 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 15 Premier League and one Championship club with Category One status.^[1] For the first time since 1984, the competition lacked a sponsor. Following the expiration of Papa Johns's sponsorship contract, the EFL attempted to find new sponsor but were unable to do so.^[2] On 2 November 2023, EFL announced they had reached an sponsorship agreement with car dealership brand Bristol Street Motors and the tournament's name was changed to reflect that from that point.^[3]

The defending champions are Bolton Wanderers who defeated Plymouth Argyle 4–0 in the previous season's final.

Participating clubs

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

	League One	League Two	Academies
Clubs	Barnsley Blackpool Bolton Wanderers Bristol Rovers Burton Albion Cambridge United Carlisle United Charlton Athletic Cheltenham Town Derby County Exeter City Fleetwood Town Leyton Orient Lincoln City Northampton Town Oxford United Peterborough United Port Vale Portsmouth Reading Shrewsbury Town Stevenage Wigan Athletic Wycombe Wanderers	Accrington Stanley AFC Wimbledon Barrow Bradford City Colchester United Crawley Town Crewe Alexandra Doncaster Rovers Forest Green Rovers Gillingham Grimsby Town Harrogate Town Mansfield Town Milton Keynes Dons Morecambe Newport County Notts County Salford City Stockport County Sutton United Swindon Town Tranmere Rovers Walsall Wrexham	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

For EFL clubs^[4]

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^[4]

Minimum of six players in the starting line-up who are aged under 21 on 30 June 2023.
Maximum of two players on the team sheet who are aged over 21 and have also made forty or more senior appearances.

Competition format

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.^[5]

Group stage

The group stage draw was finalised on 22 June 2023.^[6]