EFL announce major schedule change to next season’s Carabao Cup

The EFL have confirmed that the Carabao Cup is set to get underway before the 2026/27 league season gets going.

In a statement released on their website, it was revealed that the League Cup will start on the weekend commencing August 7-9.

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Unusually, it is taking place on a weekend rather than midweek, and the first round is also scheduled for before the Championship, League One and Two campaigns start.

Traditionally, the three EFL leagues get going, and then, the Carabao Cup starts days later, but it won’t work that way next term.

Instead, the EFL sides will compete in the first round of the Carabao Cup.

Round two then sees Premier League sides that aren’t playing in Europe join before the rest come in at Round three.

There are no dates for these further rounds yet.

In a statement about the new dates, the EFL said: “The EFL start dates for the 2026/27 season have been confirmed, with Round One of the Carabao Cup set to kick off the new campaign, before the Sky Bet Championship, Sky Bet League One and Sky Bet League Two begin the following weekend.

“The 2026/27 season will see Round One of the Carabao Cup take place over the weekend of 7-9 August, with the League action set to start a week later over the weekend of 14-16 August.

“The Vertu Trophy will begin in the week commencing 21 September.”

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All change

It is very unusual to see the Carabao Cup taking place at weekend.

Usually, the only tie of the whole tournament that takes place on a weekend is the final.

However, the EFL have made a change for the first round next season, and it’s not actually clear why they’ve done it.

The Carabao Cup is always the first domestic trophy to get underway and conclude, but this is an interesting change from what we’ve seen before.

In the current edition of the competition, we are at the semi-final stage.

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In the first semi-final, the holders Newcastle United are taking on Manchester City.

The Magpies ended their 70-year domestic drought for silverware in this exact competition last year, and they want to defend it.

But to make their third final in the space of four years, they must get past City, who have made a habit of winning this tournament under Pep Guardiola.

The first leg is at St James’ Park, and the second is at the Etihad Stadium.

In the other semi-final, Liam Rosenior will look to navigate Chelsea past Arsenal.

The Blues are at home first before heading to north London for the second leg.

The winners of each will face each other in late March at Wembley, and all of the remainder of the Carabao Cup will be on talkSPORT.