SWINDON Town look likely to benefit from the EFL’s new scheme designed to encourage clubs to field more young domestic players.

The league will be sharing £2.25 million with its 72 clubs over the next three seasons on a pro rata basis as part of the EFL Futures initiative, with funding handed out as an incentive for teams that field players under the age of 21, who are eligible to represent England, in EFL matches.

A pot of £300,000 has been ring-fenced for League One clubs and at present, Town are second on the list of EFL clubs in terms of qualifying senior appearances with 45 – Coventry are top with 78 while Crewe (44) are third.

  •  TOWN have been linked with an unlikely move for former Blackburn Rovers defender Christopher Samba.

The 32-year-old Congo international, who in 2013 signed for Queens Park Rangers from Anzhi Mackhachkala for a fee reported fee of £12.5 million, on wages believed to be £100,000-a-week, is currently with Greek giants Panathinaikos and is contracted until June 2017.

Greek outlet Sport 24 claim that Samba is unhappy with life at the country’s most successful club and that Town are keen to assess the veteran centre-back’s fitness before pursuing a potential deal.

  •  EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey has admitted that the Checkatrade Trophy could be binned after just one season.

The competition, introduced as a revamp of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, has been criticised for introducing 16 category one academy teams from Premier League and Championship clubs alongside sides from League One and League Two on a trial basis.

Participating sides have also been required to field ‘full-strength’ sides featuring at least five players who started their team’s previous or following game – 12 clubs have been fined for breaching these rules this season.

“We’ve always committed to review the competition and its objectives with our 48 League One and Two clubs,” said Harvey.

“We said we would do this after the one-year pilot and it will take place in April.

“There’s as much potential that it won’t (be scrapped) as it will.”

  •  BURY, who sacked manager David Flitcroft last month, have approached Crewe Alexandra in a bid to bring former striker Ryan Lowe back to Gigg Lane as player-coach.