Promotion and relegation will be scrapped in Premier League 2 from the start of next season.

The current system splits Category One clubs into two divisions but this will now be replaced by a 25-team league, according to Youth Hawk.

The change was voted for at the Premier League’s annual general meeting last week. Several proposals were considered but the ‘Swiss model’ ultimately got the nod.

There had previously been concerns that the desire to maintain league position had been hindering individual player development.

Moreover, it had been argued that some clubs were retaining players for longer – or even recruiting specifically for the Under-21 age group – solely to boost their position in Premier League 2.

Teams will now be seeded into five pots based on their performance in the competition over the previous three seasons. They will face each side in their own pot as well as four or five teams from the other pots.

This means that each club will play 20 matches in the regular season, which is six fewer than Division One sides faced last term.

Once all league fixtures have been completed, the top 16 teams in the table will qualify for the knockout format. It is hoped that this will maintain the level of meaningful competition during the latter stages of the campaign.

A one-tier format was most recently used during the 2013/14 season for the top Under-21 sides in English football.

Rovers finished 10th in Division One last season and also reached the semi-final of the Lancashire Senior Cup.

The Under-21 side’s full fixture list for the upcoming campaign is scheduled to be released next month.

Keep up to date with our Rovers coverage on social media, by joining us on Facebook and Twitter

Or if you want the Telegraph newspaper delivered to your door, get in touch with our home delivery team or call us on 0800 953 0227