Carabao Cup 2025-26

[davieG]

 

 

Carabao Cup brings in preliminary round for 2025-26

Image caption,
Four EFL sides will compete in the newly introduced preliminary round of the Carabao Cup in August

Kate Holloway
BBC Sport England

The 2025-26 Carabao Cup will include a preliminary round to accommodate the increased number of Premier League clubs with European commitments.

Nine top-flight sides are set to participate in European competitions next season, prompting the change to help reduce the number of clubs in the first two rounds.

 

The preliminary round will feature the two sides promoted from the National League and the two clubs who finished 21st and 22nd in League Two.

They will be separated regionally, as is customary with the competition's early rounds, meaning Accrington Stanley will face Oldham Athletic while Barnet take on Newport County.

The home sides for those ties will be drawn at the same time as the draw for round one, on 26 June at 16:30 BST.

All EFL clubs - other than the two eliminated in the preliminary round - will participate in round one of the competition.

 

The 11 Premier League sides not in Europe enter at the second-round stage while the nine sides to have qualified for Europe - Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace - come in at round three.

Palace are waiting for their participation in the Europa League to be rubber-stamped by Uefa, as John Textor's Eagle Football group has a minority shareholding in Palace and a majority stake in French side Lyon, who have also qualified for next season's European competition.

 

Carabao Cup 2025-26 fixture dates
Preliminary round: week commencing 4 August 2025

Round one: week commencing 11 August 2025

Round two: week commencing 25 August 2025

Round three: split between week commencing 15 September and 22 September 2025 to accommodate clubs participating in Champions League and Europa League

Round four: week commencing 27 October 2025

Round five: week commencing 15 December 2025

Semi-final first leg: week commencing 12 January 2026

Semi-final second leg: week commencing 2 February 2026

Final: Sunday, 22 March 2026

[PAULCFC]

Not sure Barnet is any where near Newport..............but get ready for the draw to be done at 3 in the morning on Scoot TV.

Edited 13 June 2025 by PAULCFC

[MPH]

2 minutes ago, PAULCFC said:

Not sure Barnet is any where near Newport..............but get ready for the draw to be done at 3 in the morning on Scoot TV.

 

 

4 am from Saudi Arabia 

 

#Riyadseason

[Gamble92]

Fantastic news that the clubs with 50+ players to pick from are having life made easier whilst Accrington Stanley and Barnet have an extra game. 

[iancognito]

Why not just remove clubs that are in Europe and replace them with 6 from the Conference? Moaning shits.

 

Top clubs were given bigger squads, extra subs and bench places, replays removed, the league cup final brought forward to February and no penalties for playing weakened teams yet STILL get concessions. **** em.

[Vlad the Fox]

2 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

Fantastic news that the clubs with 50+ players to pick from are having life made easier whilst Accrington Stanley and Barnet have an extra game. 

Exactly, especially when with the new champions league format they could put reserve teams out in the europa cup and conference league due to the lack of quality in them competitions now. 

[Foxes1]

2 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

Fantastic news that the clubs with 50+ players to pick from are having life made easier whilst Accrington Stanley and Barnet have an extra game. 

And most of them play the under-21's in the earlier rounds anyway.

[Foxdiamond]

Yep. More nonsense to benefit the bigger clubs when not required 

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, iancognito said:

Why not just remove clubs that are in Europe and replace them with 6 from the Conference? Moaning shits.

 

Top clubs were given bigger squads, extra subs and bench places, replays removed, the league cup final brought forward to February and no penalties for playing weakened teams yet STILL get concessions. **** em.

It's not all big clubs though is it? 

 

It includes Forest and Palace. 

 

The same applies years ago when Wigan and Birmingham both qualified for Europe. 

[Foxdiamond]

14 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

It's not all big clubs though is it? 

 

It includes Forest and Palace. 

 

The same applies years ago when Wigan and Birmingham both qualified for Europe. 

I would retain all the clubs that qualify for Europe otherwise you further devalue the League Cup. My beef is that by giving them free passage to the 3rd round it makes it easier passage to win the LC.  The clubs have big enough squads and anyway play some fringe players if they are that bothered.

[orangecity23]

Should have just removed Forest and Tottenham from European competition instead, then everyone is happy 

[Leicesterpool]

I think to give other clubs a chance of silverware, I would say clubs that are in the champions league don't need to feature. 

[Foxdiamond]

47 minutes ago, Leicesterpool said:

I think to give other clubs a chance of silverware, I would say clubs that are in the champions league don't need to feature. 

Will degrade the competition though. 

[Mike the Metal Ed]

1 hour ago, Foxdiamond said:

I would retain all the clubs that qualify for Europe otherwise you further devalue the League Cup. My beef is that by giving them free passage to the 3rd round it makes it easier passage to win the LC.  The clubs have big enough squads and anyway play some fringe players if they are that bothered.

Clubs in Europe have always* been given a bye to the third round though. We did in 1997-98 (before being unceremoniously dumped out by Grimsby Town) 

 

*To within my lifetime/working recollection 

 

So there isn't a change to that aspect.

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, Foxdiamond said:

I would retain all the clubs that qualify for Europe otherwise you further devalue the League Cup. My beef is that by giving them free passage to the 3rd round it makes it easier passage to win the LC.  The clubs have big enough squads and anyway play some fringe players if they are that bothered.

The rule about passage to the 3rd Round was in place back when we won the League Cup in 1997. Hence a Third Round loss to Grimsby. The Preliminary Round is something with a history which has cropped up when clubs qualified via the Fair Play League. People are talking as if these were not in place years ago rather than the current period of the 'Big 6'. 

 

Not all clubs qualifying for Europe have the squad depth.  In the last five years alone, Palace, Forest, Leicester, Brighton, West Ham, and to a lesser extent Villa and Newcastle have qualified for Europe. There's even examples of Birmingham, Wigan and Ipswich doing it as Championship clubs hence a Third Round bye is quite sensible for those in particular. 

 

 

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, Leicesterpool said:

I think to give other clubs a chance of silverware, I would say clubs that are in the champions league don't need to feature. 

In which case, it would be a shit competition and something like the Football League Trophy 

[Foxdiamond]

17 minutes ago, Mike the Metal Ed said:

Clubs in Europe have always* been given a bye to the third round though. We did in 1997-98 (before being unceremoniously dumped out by Grimsby Town) 

 

*To within my lifetime/working recollection 

 

So there isn't a change to that aspect.

I've always thought this was wrong even when we benefitted. Is rather akin to letting clubs bypass the 3rd round of the FA Cup 

[Super_horns]

All a bit messy but hardly surprising as it happened last season too .

[Leicesterpool]

2 hours ago, Foxdiamond said:

Will degrade the competition though. 

Still be massive clubs involved, I mean Man United not playing any european competition they would feature. Someone mentioned about the EFL Trophy being pointless, which I agree with. I think most clubs in the EFL perhaps except Peterborough Utd would probably vote for that be axed. Get rid of that clubs in the little tier's would love the opportunity to take on premier league team and not some U23's side. For the other 14 premier league clubs, great chance to end their trophy drought, play at wembley and maybe qualify for the europa league. 

Edited 13 June 2025 by Leicesterpool

[Fox92]

3 minutes ago, Leicesterpool said:

Still be massive clubs involved, I mean Man United not playing any european competition they would feature. Someone mentioned about the EFL Trophy being pointless, which I agree with. I think most clubs in the EFL perhaps except Peterborough Utd would probably vote for that be axed. Get rid of that clubs in the little tier's would love the opportunity to take on premier league team and not some U23's side. For the other 14 premier league clubs, great chance to end their trophy drought, play at wembley and maybe qualify for the europa league. 

EFL trophy isn't pointless. It's a nice thing for smaller teams to try and get to Wembley and win a trophy. When you think Sunderland, Bolton, Coventry and Portsmouth have all won it within the last 10 years it's clear the bigger clubs take it serious too. Birmingham got to the final this season as well. The under 23 teams should not be in it, it needs to revert back to how it was.

 

The smaller teams have more a chance of getting to Wembley in this competition than they would the League Cup. It's very rare a non top flight teams gets to the final of the League Cup (I know Cardiff and Bradford both did in more recent times but that's now over a decade ago). 

[Foxdiamond]

5 minutes ago, Leicesterpool said:

Still be massive clubs involved, I mean Man United not playing any european competition they would feature. Someone mentioned about the EFL Trophy being pointless, which I agree with. I think most clubs in the EFL perhaps except Peterborough Utd would probably vote for that be axed. Get rid of that clubs in the little tier's would love the opportunity to take on premier league team and not some U23's side. For the other 14 premier league clubs, great chance to end their trophy drought, play at wembley and maybe qualify for the europa league. 

Still takes the gloss off for me

[Leicesterpool]

16 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

EFL trophy isn't pointless. It's a nice thing for smaller teams to try and get to Wembley and win a trophy. When you think Sunderland, Bolton, Coventry and Portsmouth have all won it within the last 10 years it's clear the bigger clubs take it serious too. Birmingham got to the final this season as well. The under 23 teams should not be in it, it needs to revert back to how it was.

 

The smaller teams have more a chance of getting to Wembley in this competition than they would the League Cup. It's very rare a non top flight teams gets to the final of the League Cup (I know Cardiff and Bradford both did in more recent times but that's now over a decade ago). 

With the top six out, you probably see a few lower league teams creep into the semi's or the actually final.

[Corky]

There has been a Preliminary Round twice before; in 2002 and 2011.

 

 

[BroughtonFox]

The EFL trophy would be better if it was League 2 to Championship. That’d make an excellent competition. I’d even throw in the national league as well!

Edited 13 June 2025 by BroughtonFox

[Bayfox]

20 hours ago, MPH said:

 

 

4 am from Saudi Arabia 

 

#Riyadseason

Heard Ronaldo in Saudi and messi in miami are drawing it via sat link to make sure that drawing a couple of ties takes at least 15 mins with the inevitable delay.