Blackpool cut prices and more controversial Trophy details emerge

Blackpool FC have reduced match day ticket prices following relegation to League Two.
Pressley: No gains for League clubsPressley: No gains for League clubs
Pressley: No gains for League clubs

A standard adult seat will cost £22, a reduction of £3, while tickets for over-60s and under-19s have been cut by £2 to £18 and £10 respectively.

Those taking out a club membership can buy discounted tickets, while members under-11 gain free admission with a paying adult.

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Tickets for the EFL Cup tie against Bolton on August 9 cost £15 (£10 seniors, £5 U19s).

More details have been revealed about the controversial new-look EFL Trophy, in which Premier League academy teams will be allowed to field senior players and penalty shoot-outs will decide group games.

The tournament for League One and Two clubs, which includes Blackpool and Fleetwood and was previously known as the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, is to be revamped for the coming season to include 16 “category-one” academy teams from Premier League clubs. These academy teams will be allowed four players over the age of 23.

The 64 competing clubs are to be split into 16 regionalised groups of four, each to include an academy team. Drawn group games will be decided by a shoot-out, the winner of which will receive an extra point.

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Invitations have been sent to the 15 Premier League clubs with category one academies and to Newcastle United, who finished higher in the league pyramid last season than the five category one clubs in the EFL.

Critics have argued the changes are designed to boost plans for Premier League B teams to join an expanded Football League.

Fleetwood Town manager Steven Pressley has mixed feelings. He said: “I’m unsure. It will give young academy players a great deal of experience.

“But I don’t think that for our own (EFL) clubs there will be a great deal of benefit.

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“If we look at it in an unselfish way, it could benefit young English players from the category one academies who will get a chance to play competitive men’s football.

“But from the club’s perspective, there will be no gain for us.”