Participating clubs
* 48 clubs from League One and League Two. * 16 invited Category One Academy teams. * Expelled clubs were automatically eliminated from the tournament. * Category One teams relegated to League One missed out on having academies participate in the following tournament.Eligibility criteria for players
;For EFL clubs * Minimum of four qualifying outfield players in their starting XI. A qualifying outfield player will be one who meets 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 have made the most starting appearances in league and domestic cup competitions that season. ** Any player with 40 or more first-team appearances in their career. ** 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 ;For invited teams * Minimum of six players in the starting line-up who played at under-21 level, as at 30 June 2019. * Teams may only include two players on the team sheet who are over the age of 21 and have made forty or more senior appearances, as at 30 June 2019. ** A senior appearance will be defined as having played in a professional first-team fixture. A non-playing substitute does not count.Competition format
;Group stage * Sixteen groups of 4 teams would be organised on a regionalised basis. * All groups would include one invited club. * All clubs would play each other once, either home or away (Academies play all group matches away from home). * Clubs would 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 shootout would 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 would progress to the Knockout Stage. ;Knockout stage * Round 2 and 3 of the competition will be drawn on a regionalised basis. * In Round 2, the group winners shall be seeded and the group runners-up shall be unseeded in the draw. * In Round 2, teams who played in the same group as each other in the Group Stage shall keep apart from each other.Group stage
Northern Section
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Southern Section
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Round 2
Northern Section
Southern Section
Round 3
Northern Section
Southern Section
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2019-20 EFL Trophy EFL Trophy seasons