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EFL Cup 2026/27

Untouchable

Untouchable

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EFL Cup 2026/27

There will be a preliminary round again this year and the draw is today.


View: https://x.com/carabao_cup/status/2062112054409048511?s=61&t=EJGqSVScFRoPzRCeoUcI_w


From the EFL website:

Why is a Preliminary Round required?

The Preliminary Round draw for next season’s Carabao Cup will include four Clubs – Tranmere Rovers, Crawley Town, York City and Rochdale – and is required due to the participation of nine Premier League Clubs in European competition next season. This was confirmed following Crystal Palace’s victory in the UEFA Europa Conference League Final last week.

With the Premier League teams competing in Europe entering the Carabao Cup at Round Three, a Preliminary Round is required to ensure that a total of 32 teams are in the pot at that stage – the nine Clubs in European competition, and 23 winners from Round Two.

Last season’s Carabao Cup also required a preliminary round, however due to the more obvious north-south split of the four Clubs, no draw was required. For this season’s preliminary round, the four teams will be randomly drawn.

Draw numbers are as follows:

  1. Crawley Town
  2. Rochdale
  3. Tranmere Rovers
  4. York City
The winner of the Preliminary Round tie involving the team based furthest south club will proceed to the Southern section of the Round One draw, with the winner of the other tie involving two northern based clubs proceeding into the Northern section. The regionalised sections of the draw will be re-adjusted ahead of Round Two of the competition.

This is because the Northern and Southern sections of the Round One draw need to be confirmed ahead of that draw taking place on Thursday 25 June, which is also fixture release day.

Carabao Cup format explained

The preliminary round is required to ensure that the correct number of Clubs proceed in the draw at each stage.

  • Preliminary Round: Clubs finishing in 21st and 22nd positions in last season’s Sky Bet League Two, alongside the two newly-promoted sides from the National League. This round is drawn randomly, with the two winning Clubs progressing to Round One.
  • Round One: This round features the two winners from the Preliminary Round alongside the other 68 EFL Clubs. This draw is regionalised into Northern and Southern sections.
  • Round Two: This round features the 35 winners from Round One, alongside the 11 Premier League teams not in European competition. This draw is regionalised into Northern and Southern sections.
  • Round Three: This round features the 23 winners from Round Two, plus the nine Premier League teams competing in European competition. This round is not regionalised.
When does the Carabao Cup start?

Dates for the two Preliminary Round ties will be announced in due course following discussions with the respective Clubs.

The draw for Round One of next season’s Carabao Cup will take place on fixture release day – Thursday 25 June – and will be live on Sky Sports News. Round One ties will take place over the weekend of 7-9 August.

The 2026/27 season will be Carabao’s 10th as Title Partner of the competition, with Manchester City the current holders following their victory over Arsenal at Wembley Stadium in March.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

It seems odd to draw the preliminary round today and then draw round 1 before the result of the preliminary round is known. It gives anyone travelling the longer distance to/from Crawley longer to plan I suppose.

Assume the people want York v Rochdale for an early re-match of April's drama.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

hobbsy said:
Yes, bizarre isn't it.
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But I think understandable for the reasons outlined?
The alternative is to draw the whole of round 1 with only a week's notice once the preliminary round ties have been played.

If York qualify and play say Plymouth in the southern section in round 1 and win, they will be swapped into the northern section for round 2 anyway. At least the tie can be played at the weekend which isn't usually the case.

I'm going to save me my energy for complaining the draw is a massive fix to favour the bigger clubs in R3 onwards anyway ;)

Can't find the list of dates for later rounds yet
 
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EFL Cup 2026/27

No warm balls then , Boooo
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

The preliminary round ties are expected to be played on the weekend of 1st and 2nd August, so the weekend before the first round. No great surprise there.
www.bbc.co.uk

EFL Cup: York City v Crawley Town, Tranmere Rovers v Rochdale in preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round of the 2026-27 EFL Cup has taken place with York facing Crawley and Tranmere hosting Rochdale.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Still not seen the dates for the competition as a whole.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Jay Bee said:
The preliminary round ties are expected to be played on the weekend of 1st and 2nd August, so the weekend before the first round. No great surprise there.
www.bbc.co.uk

EFL Cup: York City v Crawley Town, Tranmere Rovers v Rochdale in preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round of the 2026-27 EFL Cup has taken place with York facing Crawley and Tranmere hosting Rochdale.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Still not seen the dates for the competition as a whole.
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Dates here
www.efl.com

Carabao Cup Round One draw details confirmed

The Official home of the English Football League
www.efl.com www.efl.com

First round draw is at 4 30pm today, no PL involvement in round 1 of course.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Newport County's win on the last day of the season against Barrow i) confirmed their safety from relegation ii) took them above Tranmere and Crawley and iii) resulted in them avoiding the preliminary round in this year's EFL Cup, at Tranmere and Crawley's expense. Bobby Kamwa's agent needs to have a word with the owners over a bonus. :)

The Cumbrians went ahead through Charlie McCann on 9 minutes. With 15 minutes left, the Welsh club's 13-year stay in the Football League looked like it was coming to an end as they trailed 1-0 and results elsewhere meant they were in the drop zone. But substitute Tom Davies and forward Bobby Kamwa struck in the 76th and 83rd minute, respectively, to spark wild celebrations among the Newport fans, an estimated 1,000 of whom had made the long journey to Cumbria.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Unreal ties for hello Ken’s
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

ruislip bee said:
How are York in the Southern section?
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Preliminary round needed this year because there’s so many clubs in Europe and consisted of Tranmere, Rochdale, York and Crawley.

They’re rezoning the whole thing again for round two.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Jolly said:
Preliminary round needed this year because there’s so many clubs in Europe and consisted of Tranmere, Rochdale, York and Crawley.

They’re rezoning the whole thing again for round two.
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Ta for your informative answer as opposed to the poster above.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

nick logan said:
Unreal ties for hello Ken’s
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Plymouth v Exeter will keep Westcountry Ken awake at nights for weeks.

Struggling to spot the other highlights. QPR v Milwall? West Ham v Pompey I suppose.

Wycombe v Stevenage and Leicester v Northampton both vying to be the crap town derby.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

If, like me, you're too tight to pay for Sky/etc. the Middlesborough v Wrexham game is on 'poor boys' telly.
ITV1 at 8.00pm on Friday 7th :hat:
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

The draw details for Round Two of the Carabao Cup have been confirmed.

It will take place during the build-up to Plymouth Argyle v Exeter City on Sky Sports Football on Monday 10 August.

Sky Sports presenter David Prutton will host the draw at approximately 7.20pm, alongside pundits Jobi McAnuff and Jamie Mackie.

Round Two sees the introduction of the 11 Premier League Clubs not participating in European competitions.

The Carabao Cup is regionalised until Round Three, with the draw for Rounds One and Two split into Northern and Southern sections.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

So looks like Coventry will go South then to make 24 teams in the South

So it will be 24 balls in the hat
Brentford
Chelsea
Coventry
Fulham
Ipswich
Tottenham
17 winners from R1
Plus the Devon Derby Ball (Which should be Ball no 24)
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Watching Middlesbrough v Wrexham tonight.

Leo Castledine looks an interesting player.
Born in Kingston, went to Teddington School, like his dad, ex Wimbledon Stuart Castledine.

Sister is in Eastenders

Mum is Lucy Alexander off the mid morning tele for the unemployed or unwell.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

SmiffyBee said:
Watching Middlesbrough v Wrexham tonight.

Leo Castledine looks an interesting player.
Born in Kingston, went to Teddington School, like his dad, ex Wimbledon Stuart Castledine.

Sister is in Eastenders

Mum is Lucy Alexander off the mid morning tele for the unemployed or unwell.
Click to expand...
I knew the Castledine Snrs very well as Stu was in my brother's class at Teddington. Good to see Leo following in his Dad's footsteps.

Lucy used to be the face of QVC.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

SmiffyBee said:
Watching Middlesbrough v Wrexham tonight.

Leo Castledine looks an interesting player.
Born in Kingston, went to Teddington School, like his dad, ex Wimbledon Stuart Castledine.

Sister is in Eastenders

Mum is Lucy Alexander off the mid morning tele for the unemployed or unwell.
Click to expand...
Got the game on, in the background whilst working.
Ground sounds soulless.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Untouchable said:
:wave: Wrexham

Fingers crossed the rest of their season is marked with failure too.
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Why do so many people on this board hate Wrexham? Is it simply because they’re Welsh? Will they not get off their high horse about their owners?

- Genuinely clueless and curious American
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

WarDamnBees said:
Why do so many people on this board hate Wrexham? Is it simply because they’re Welsh? Will they not get off their high horse about their owners?

- Genuinely clueless and curious American
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I think it's mostly the fact that they're the anti-Brentford in terms of buying immediate success with older journeymen who will get them out of a league, but can't sustain the league above, so they rinse and repeat.

My personal view is that it's far less annoying than Chelsea, City, Forest etc. The owners are way more invested than Marinakis etc. Yes they get favouritism from TV etc, but that's not much more than Bournemouth got when they were cheating their way out of the championship, Sky were all over them.

Plenty of others have bought their way up. Stockport, Wigan, Fleetwood, and others, to a lesser or greater degree. The difference is that Wrexham are investing in the whole infrastructure which will eventually give them a decent grounding for upper Championship / lower Prem.

I am probably in the minority here and I know Untouchable in particular absolutely hates the "circus"...
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Judio1999 said:
Like Salford it is because of the media love in
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Not taken too much notice of it. Certainly not watched the TV series. As others say, ‘buying success’ gets other clubs’ fans going. It’s partly jealousy.
Whenever I have seen them in recent seasons, they’ve fielded a totally different team to that I saw previously for them. Keep doing that long enough, and often enough, and they’ll get there.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

WarDamnBees said:
Why do so many people on this board hate Wrexham?
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I think a big part of it is the artificial connection many of their new "fans" have with the club. Football in this country is now getting on for two centuries old, with the top end of the game being professional for a large part of that. As a result, people generally start following a club because they come from the area; or their family formerly did; or their Grandad took them to their first game; or they moved to the area; or their favourite player as a kid signed for them; or even simply because they liked the colours etc.

Whereas with Wrexham, it's because some Hollywood geeks, out to make a TV profit from their investment, are telling complete strangers all over the world that it's "cool" to "support" them
WarDamnBees said:
Is it simply because they’re Welsh?
Click to expand...
Well there is that, I suppose! ;)
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Gawain said:
I think a big part of it is the artificial connection many of their new "fans" have with the club. Football in this country is now getting on for two centuries old, with the top end of the game being professional for a large part of that. As a result, people generally start following a club because they come from the area; or their family formerly did; or their Grandad took them to their first game; or they moved to the area; or their favourite player as a kid signed for them; or even simply because they liked the colours etc.

Whereas with Wrexham, it's because some Hollywood geeks, out to make a TV profit from their investment, are telling complete strangers all over the world that it's "cool" to "support" them

Well there is that, I suppose! ;)
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And there will also be plenty that have followed them for years, praying for the day someone with money would come along.

Let's not pretend that if MB hadn't sorted us out, we wouldn't have welcomed the kind of money and publicity Wrexham have gained. Quite a bit of jealousy is why the dislike is there, imo.
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Hippobee said:
And there will also be plenty that have followed them for years, praying for the day someone with money would come along.

Let's not pretend that if MB hadn't sorted us out, we wouldn't have welcomed the kind of money and publicity Wrexham have gained. Quite a bit of jealousy is why the dislike is there, imo.
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No doubt, but it wasn't the "old school" Wrexham supporters I was referring to.

Of course clubs which get success will attract extra fans, but those new fans we see eg at the GTech generally either have some sort of connection, even if tenuous. Or are supporting BFC from new because they've chosen the club for its own sake, not because it's "this year's Hollywood fashion item".

As for an ex-Benham club achieving success some other way, sure existing fans would have continued following the club, but maybe not with quite the same affection as before, at least had that success been solely down to "Welcome to Brentford".

Whilst following the Benham takeover, the fans still support the club, but still feel entitled to bemoan the excesses of the PL and TV, and all the bullsh1t which comes with it.

Or maybe I'm not just "old school", but merely old! :)
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

Bigbee said:
I'm watching Qparse V Wall

1700 Wall there
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'Wall now 1-0 up. Butterfingers keeper caught the ball then dropped it :oops:
 

EFL Cup 2026/27

WarDamnBees said:
Why do so many people on this board hate Wrexham? Is it simply because they’re Welsh? Will they not get off their high horse about their owners?

- Genuinely clueless and curious American
Click to expand...
Loose despised family connection
 
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