Carabao Cup First Round Draw on Friday

Steve McManaman, Louis Saha and Dennis Wise are preparing to head to Vietnam as the Carabao Cup goes back on the road, with the Round One draw set to take place from Vietnam’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh City on Friday 15 June at 10.45am UK time.

The three former EFL Cup winners will join representatives from the EFL and competition partner Carabao Energy Drink to unveil the 35 Round One ties, with live text coverage available on the Carabao Cup twitter feed and EFL.com. Plus we will have full details of Oxford United's opponents right here immediately after the draw.

It is the second successive season that Carabao Cup draws have taken place overseas, with events being staged in Bangkok and Beijing last season as part of the EFL’s continued efforts to build the value of the competition outside the UK.

The 2017/18 final in February saw Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City comfortably overcome Arsenal, in what proved to be Arsene Wenger’s last Final in charge of the Gunners. Over 85,000 supporters were in attendance at Wembley Stadium, while the match was watched in more than 150 territories worldwide.

EFL Chief Executive Shaun Harvey will be present in Vietnam, alongside Carabao Energy Drink CEO Sathien Setthasit, in a country where football is immensely popular amongst its population of 95 million people and is also a key market for Carabao Energy Drink.

Seventy EFL Clubs will feature in the new-look draw, which will see teams drawn into Northern and Southern sections, but with no seeding for higher ranked sides as in previous seasons.  Matches are scheduled to take place on the week commencing 13th August, with West Bromwich Albion included, while Championship newcomers Stoke City and Swansea City will join the competition in Round Two, alongside the Premier League clubs that are not competing in Europe.

EFL Clubs have voted to remove extra-time from every round, apart from the Final, from the start of the 2018/19 season, with matches tied at 90 minutes going straight to a penalty shoot-out.  The 2019 Final will feature extra time and penalties if required. 

The format of penalties will revert to the traditional format, as opposed to the recently trialled ABBA formula, which will no longer feature in EFL competitions.

VAR will again be utilised in the competition and can be incorporated for all games that are played at Premier League stadiums, while this season’s final will take place on Sunday 24th February 2019, with the winners guaranteed a place in the Europa League in the following campaign.

Regionalisation and ball numbers are as follows: