RICHARD SCUDAMORE finally put to bed the idea of B teams playing in the Premier or Football League yesterday.

The introduction of 16 invited category one academy sides in the EFL Trophy has sparked outrage among teams in the lower divisions.

Many believe that this new format will be seen as a pathway to Premier League sides allowing their reserves to participate in the Football League, similar to the football pyramid in Spain.

However, the Premier League chief executive confirmed that this is as far as B teams will go.

“This is the beginning of the end of B teams — this is it,” Scudamore said. “That’s the whole point of it, to be honest. We are absolutely consistent on our view about no B teams in the regular Football League.

“Yes, of course we know some of our clubs would like B teams. We look abroad and we see the benefit of B teams. It’s just for the English football structure and pyramid, it doesn’t work. And so this is it.

“We can console all these worried Football League clubs’ supporters. This isn’t the thin end of the wedge, this is the block. It’s the beginning of the end of it.”

Part of the reason for the introduction of B teams in the EFL Trophy is to give English youngsters more of a chance of first-team football and against players of an older age group.

Many sit on the brink of the first team but are unable to make that final step and get lost in the footballing wilderness.

“The big challenge is that fewer and fewer English players are coming forward into the Premier League and that can’t go on, we’ve got to change that.”

Many believe the lack of playing time young footballers recieve prevents the national team from excelling and have used the failure in France to hammer home the point that things need to change.

However, Scudamore disagrees and argues that the figures have improved over the past few years, with 67 “homegrown” players making their debut last season compared with 54 in 2014-15.

He added that the exit from Euro 2016 did not force a rethink of the current youth development system and that the team Roy Hodgson took to France was good enough to go all the way.

“I don’t think Portugal were that good and I don’t think France were that good — I think we could have won in 2016, but we didn’t, did we?

“We did our own post-Euros discussion and there is nothing we saw that put us off the journey.

“In other words, we know we’re producing good players, we saw nothing that said: ‘Oh, Christ.’

“We’ve got a talented group of players at the moment and it’s about making sure they perform.”