BURY chief executive Glenn Thomas is “hugely disappointed” with the arrangements for this year’s EFL Trophy, despite backing changes to the competition earlier in the summer.

The Shakers voted in favour of opening up the competition, formerly known as the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, to include under-21 teams from Premier League clubs.

But since the vote, according to reports it appears that a host of Premier League clubs will reject invitations to submit a young team, including Manchester United and Manchester City.

“You can only vote on how it is presented to you at the time,” Thomas said. “The problem is teams are now rejecting the invitation and it has turned into a farce.

“All teams invited should have been confirmed beforehand. The competition is very much in limbo and everyone is waiting to see how it will work if teams continue to reject invitations.

“I feel disappointed for the fans. Something needs to be done to sort out this competition because it is not well supported at all, people just don’t turn up for the trophy.”

The new format has not been received well by many supporters on social media who are unhappy at the prospect of a competition that offered a chance for sides in the bottom two divisions to make it to a Wembley final being opened up to the top-tier’s second-string.

Prior to the news of Premier League sides’ intention not to submit a team, Thomas explained why the club chose to vote in favour of the change.

“We voted in favour, and the reason for that is that it’s only a one-year trial.

“The plans will increase the revenue to the clubs and gives us the opportunity, because of our catchment area, to get the Man Uniteds and the Man Citys playing here.

“We just felt, for a trial period, it certainly didn’t do the club any harm or harm the value of the competition.

“The FA are also putting more money into the competition to make it more financially attractive to the clubs.”

The plan for this year’s EFL Trophy is to have 16 groups of four, with at least one club from League One, one from League Two and one under-21 side from a Premier League club in each group, which will be regionalised.

Bury will play each team once, either home or away. If a match in the group stages ends in a draw the game will go straight to penalties with the winning side earning an extra point.

Given the Shakers’ recent yearly losses, a prize fund of £10,000 per win and £5,000 per draw in the group stages is certainly appetising.

The winning jackpot stands at £100,000.

All under-21 sides that accept the invitation to join the EFL Trophy must play one group game at their first-team stadium – with the closest team to Gigg Lane accepted so far being Everton.

Another financial benefit is that under-21 clubs must donate their entire proceeds in the group stages to a pool, which will be shared between Football League clubs. A lesser percentage will be donated in the latter stages.