Sunderland U21s will feature in a new look Premier League 2 competition next season, with clubs voting to adopt a Swiss-style format. The current Premier League 2 sees Category 1 academies split into two divisions, with promotion and relegation between the leagues.
But a report from Training Ground Guru says that from next season, the 25 teams will instead be seeded into five pots based on their performance in the competition over the previous three years. Each team will play 20 games across the regular season, meeting the other sides in their pot and also either four or five teams in every other pot, either home or away.
At the end of the regular season, a single league table would be drawn up with the top 16 teams qualifying for a play-off competition. The Swiss model means that teams will not play every other team, and will not play the same opponents home and away.
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The format is unfamiliar in England, where round-robin formats - each team playing every other team, home and away - is the norm. But the Swiss system is used in situations where the number of teams makes it impractical to play a round-robin competition.
The Champions League is moving to the Swiss system when it expands from 32 to 36 teams in 2024-25. Several clubs in the old top tier of Premier League 2 have been in favour of removing the threat of relegation for some time, saying that the imperative to retain league status has taken precedence over the development of players.
It has led to clubs retaining players for longer than they otherwise would in order to strengthen their league placing in Premier League 2, or for clubs recruiting specifically for their U21 age group. But the move to a Swiss system also has its critics, with some believing that it can reduce the levels of competition late in the season.
Graeme Murty's Sunderland finished ninth in the 11-team Premier League 2 Division Two last season, but they did reach the play-offs in 2020-21. Fixtures for the 2023-24 Premier League 2 campaign are due to be released next month.
