Portsmouth fans said yesterday they plan to boycott their EFL Trophy fixtures in protest against the new format.

The club voted against the proposal to allow 16 category -one Premier League academies to take part in the competition.

However, the vote went through only for Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham to reject the invitation.

And fan’s group SOS Pompey plan to walk out of the first game after kick-off.

“Once the games kick off, we’ll all walk out to show our contempt for this decision,” said the group’s Bob Beech.

“We thought if fans boycotted the games completely, the club would suffer financially through no fault of their own.

“We voted through unanimously at our own meeting to walk out shortly after kick-off.”

Fans were left furious last week when the Football League released details of the group stages.

In what were meant to be “local” group stages, Cheltenham face a 350-mile round trip to Blackpool while also having Everton and Bolton in their group.

The rejections from the Premier League clubs followed by the farcical draw have caused more criticism of the largely unpopular change to the tournament.

But Football League chief Shaun Harvey said yesterday that the league were making tough decisions, not popular ones.

He said: “Innovation is never always the easiest thing to deliver, I think what we are adamant that we are not going to take an easy option because publicly it is easier, we are taking decisions we feel are in the best interest to our clubs, the best interest of the game in this country and will hopefully make a change going forward.”

The decision being referred to is the adding of top-flight youth teams to a competition for League One and League Two teams in an attempt to “rejuvenate” the cup, though many believe it is a way to slowly introduce B-teams into the Football League structure as well nurturing young English players — something that Harvey once again disputed.

“Fans have a mixed view,” he said. “We have heard from a vocal minority, as you do with everything, and they are worried it is the thin end of the wedge and a way for B-teams to come into the EFL itself but you have heard people’s views on that.

“We are also minded to the fact that we need to try and help bring younger players through, we bring them through inside our competition in the loan system but if we can get them playing inside their clubs against senior teams from our club and ultimately be in a position when we might actually create better players for the future and we have responsibility in that area.”