Thursday 10 November 2016 16:24, UK
The EFL has confirmed the inaugural Checkatrade Trophy will work as a standalone competition for disciplinary purposes.
Players who are currently serving, or have been levied with, Premier League or EFL suspensions will be eligible for the competition, which starts this week with the first set of group matches.
A total of 16 invited Category One teams are joining the 48 clubs from League One and League Two, with the EFL clubs having to field a minimum of five first-team players and the invited clubs from the Premier League and Championship fielding at least six U21s in their respective starting XIs.
The new rules come into force straight away and also mean cautions and red cards earned in the competition will not apply for EFL or Premier League fixtures.
EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey said: "Any standard sanction arising from offences committed in Checkatrade Trophy fixtures will be served within the tournament.
"Upon review of the existing disciplinary rules and following some feedback at our pre-season managers' meetings, we felt it was important to ensure the new format had a disciplinary process of its own that did not affect other competitions."
As well as the regular levels of suspension from the Laws of Football, Checkatrade Trophy matches will also be subject to accumulative suspensions for bookings.
Competition rules state: "If a player accumulates two cautions in the Checkatrade Trophy up to and including the quarter-final fixtures, he will be suspended automatically from the next Checkatrade Trophy match.
"A player who has already been subject to disciplinary action as a result of receiving two cautions, and then proceeds to receive a further two cautions during the Checkatrade Trophy up to and including the quarter-final matches, will be suspended automatically for a further two matches."
