Leeds United entering Carabao Cup in new round as big competition changes are announced

Changes have been announced to the Carabao Cup for the 2025-26 competition which will feature an extra round but a ‘later’ start from a Leeds United point of view.

Leeds are heading back to the Premier League as Championship champions which means entry into the competition at the second round stage and not the first round as in previous years.

However, even the first round of the competition will no longer be the first stage of the EFL Cup due to the introduction of a new preliminary round - introduced due to nine Premier League teams being involved in European competition for the 2025/26 campaign.

Consequently, the format of the Carabao Cup will be amended to introduce a four-team preliminary qualifying round, to reduce the number of clubs in the first and second round in order to accommodate all Premier League European Clubs in the third round.

Four teams put into competition’s new round

The new preliminary round will consist of the two promoted clubs from the National League in Barnet and Oldham Athletic plus the two lowest surviving sides from last season’s League Two campaign in Accrington Stanley and Newport County.

The ties will be regionalised North and South as per round one with Accrington playing Oldham and Barnet playing Newport County.

The winners of those fixtures will then progress to the first round of the competition, for which the draw will take place live on Sky Sports News at 4:30pm on Thursday, June 26 as part of the EFL’s Fixture Release Day.

The preliminary round of the competition will also be drawn on the same date to determine the home clubs for the two ties.

Leeds, though, will come into the competition in the second round - ties in which will be played the week commencing August 25.

Daniel Farke’s Whites entered last season’s Carabao Cup at the first round stage in their second year as a Championship side.

Leeds came down at the first hurdle, knocked out through a 3-0 defeat at home to Middlesbrough.