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English Football League CEO Shaun Harvey has "called for the success of the Checkatrade Trophy to be judged at the end of the season amid growing criticism of the competition's new format," according to Sam Long of the London EVENING STANDARD. The tournament has been "revamped this season with the introduction of a group stage while Premier League clubs with Category One academies were also allowed to enter for the first time since the competition's inception" in '83. Fans of lower league teams have "appeared to vote with their feet in regards to the changes as the majority of games have been played in front of paltry crowds across the country." Harvey said, "Low crowds are a concern but this was an innovative approach to try and solve a big problem. We will be doing a lot of work to understand what the issue is. The reality with the competition is that our fixture schedule is so tight that there’s only certain periods the games can be played in, including the international week. Short of manufacturing additional weeks in the calendar there will be a clash. ... It's a one-year pilot, we'll review the situation with League One and League Two clubs" (
EVENING STANDARD, 10/6). The PA reported a number of top academies opted not to take part as Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City, ManU and Liverpool "all rejected the invitation, with the EFL having to extend the invite further down the football pyramid." Accrington tweeted a joke about the number of its supporters who attended its 4-1 win at Chesterfield. The club tweeted, "Reports of an away following of 2 at Chesterfield last night are untrue. We counted at least 6..." Harvey was speaking at the Leaders Sport Business Summit at Stamford Bridge on the same day the EFL announced a new £2.25M ($2.8M) "financial incentive for its clubs to field young, home-grown players." A statement read, "EFL Futures will help clubs to develop more young players within the EFL and provide direct financial rewards to clubs who regularly promote home-grown players from their academies into the first team" (
PA, 10/5).
DAILY BATTLE: REUTERS' Alan Baldwin reported CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani said that FIFA was "right to wind up its anti-racism task force but got it wrong when it came to explaining why it did so." He said, "I think anti-racism has to be embedded in your day-to-day organization, not in a committee. A committee that maybe meets once a year. Really? You're going to fight anti-racism? No, you're not. Anti-racism is not fought once a year, it has to be fought daily. But I think maybe the communication wasn't the best." Anti-discriminatory body Football Against Racism in Europe Exec Dir Piara Powar said, "I think the issue was the way in which FIFA announced it to the members (of the committee)" (REUTERS, 10/6).
'REFORM OR DIE': INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL's Paul Nicholson reported "reform or die, and reform had better happen sooner rather than later," was the "unequivocal, if not evangelical" message from ICSS Europe CEO Emanuel Medeiros at Leaders. Speaking at the presentation of the first independent report of the Financial Integrity & Transparency in Sport Global Project which examines the facts around and the main challenges facing the financial integrity and transparency of the football industry, Medeiros "painted a bleak picture" of the progress being made and saying that "financial integrity in sport is (still) in serious trouble." While Medeiros acknowledges that "important advances" have been made by many sports bodies, he "questions what is happening in Europe, for example, with financial integrity surrounding clubs, and in particular with player transfer regulations and desperate need for financial integrity in the marketplace" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 10/5).
