City will go into the new season as defending champions having won the PL2 title for an unprecedented three seasons in a row.
However, having previously comprised a two-division format with relegation and promotion in both divisions, the upcoming Premier League 2 campaign will instead see just one division made up of clubs with Category One Academies.
At present there are 26 such clubs including City.
The full list of teams is (Team and Division):
Arsenal (PL)
Aston Villa (PL)
Blackburn Rovers (Champ)
Brighton (PL)
Chelsea (PL)
Crystal Palace (PL)
Derby County (Champ)
Everton (PL)
Fulham (PL)
Leeds United (Champ)
Leicester City (Champ)
Liverpool (PL)
Man City (PL)
Man Utd (PL)
Middlesbrough (Champ)
Newcastle United (PL)
Norwich (Champ)
Nott’m Forest (PL)
Reading (League One)
Southampton (Champ)
Stoke City (Champ)
Sunderland (Champ)
Spurs (PL)
West Brom (Champ)
West Ham United (PL)
Wolves (PL)
The teams will be divided into five pots based on their performances over the past three seasons.
Fixtures will be determined by a draw made according to clubs’ positions within the five seeded pots.
There will be 20 Matchweeks, with each team playing 20 regular-season matches throughout the campaign.
Teams will play each club in their own seeding pot once, as well as three to five teams in all other pots either home or away.
Results (three points for a win and one point for a draw) will generate a table ranking the 26 teams.
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After the regular season of 20 Matchweeks has completed, the top 16 teams will qualify for a single elimination play-off.
Teams will be drawn against each other based on their league positions, for example the team finishing first facing the team that finished 16th. These will be one-off elimination matches with the higher-seeded team at home.
In addition, the teams finishing the regular season in the top 12 will also be invited to take part in the following season’s Premier League International Cup competition.
The changes came about after an extensive review of Professional Development Phase competitions.
In outlining the upcoming changes, the league added: “The removal of relegation introduces positive jeopardy; it supports clubs making development-first decisions, and minimises the impact of relegation on future groups of U21 players.
“Also, the experience of play-offs will open up to 16 teams rather than the four in Division 2 of previous seasons.
“The new format will also give teams a greater breadth of fixtures, playing 20 different opponents, compared with only 13 in Division 1 and only 10 in Division 2
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“The single division format also provides greater flexibility to add or decrease the number of fixtures in future seasons, dependent on the number of teams in the league, as well as access to additional development opportunities, including matches against senior teams and international opposition.”
As before, players in the competition cannot be older than 21.
Fixtures for the new campaign are expected to be confirmed shortly.
