COLCHESTER United chairman Robbie Cowling was in attendance as clubs gathered at the Football League's annual Summer Conference, in Portugal.

U's general manager Tim Waddington was also present, as a wide range of issues affecting EFL clubs were discussed.

One of the main developments from the AGM was the confirmation of a new policy that will mean clubs must interview at least one black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) candidate in their recruitment of a new manager.

The recruitment code has been introduced in order to help address the under-representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) managers in the game.

It follows an 18-month trial period, with EFL clubs voluntarily committing to interview at least one BAME candidate when undertaking a recruitment process for any managerial position in first-team football.

The new regulation is designed to ensure that clubs must consider multiple applicants for a role, with the principle of providing more opportunities to BAME candidates.

EFL clubs also gave the thumbs up to the introduction of a new regulation which is designed to tighten the rules on observing opponents' training sessions, 72 hours before a game.

It is as a result of the ‘spygate’ controversy, where a member of Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa’s staff was caught filming a Derby County training session in January.

As a result, Leeds were fined £200,000 and warned about their future conduct in February, after being found to have breached EFL regulation 3.4, which states clubs must act with the “upmost good faith” towards each other.

However, as spying was not explicitly mentioned they avoided a points penalty.

Plenty of other topics were discussed in Portugal, including iFollow and club finances.

The EFL Board also appointed Debbie Jevans CBE to the role of Executive Chair of the English Football League.

Having joined the EFL as an Independent Non-Executive Director in 2014, Ms Jevans has been operating as Interim Chair of the League since September 2018 and has now taken on responsibility for leading the organisation until a new CEO is appointed.

Colchester will discover who they will play and when next week when the fixtures for the 2019-20 EFL season are released.

The fixtures will be released next Thursday (June 20).

Meanwhile, Colchester will entertain Championship new boys Charlton Athletic in a pre-season friendly next month.

The U's will host the Addicks at the JobServe Community Stadium on Tuesday, July 23.