Carabao Cup 2026/27 (M)

On 30 May 1960 The Times's correspondent dismissed the whole idea in a sentence: the Football League was about to launch "their useless Football League Cup" on midweek nights, and it got the players, the clubs and the public nowhere. The concept had come from Stanley Rous, who pictured it as a consolation for clubs already knocked out of the FA Cup. The man who actually built it was League secretary Alan Hardaker, chasing gate money for clubs facing a shorter fixture list. League president Joe Richards paid for the trophy out of his own pocket and had his own name engraved on the silver. Winners collected a tankard, not a medal.

Aston Villa took the first edition in 1960-61, beating Rotherham United 3-2 over two legs. A year later the final was contested by Norwich City, who had never played in the First Division, and Rochdale, who were in the Fourth: 4-0 to the Canaries on aggregate. In 1967 the final moved to Wembley and the competition found its story. Third Division Queens Park Rangers came back from 0-2 down against West Bromwich Albion to win 3-2 in front of 97,952, through Roger Morgan, Rodney Marsh and Mark Lazarus. Two years later Swindon Town did it again from the same division.

The roll of honour, though, belongs to the big clubs. Liverpool have ten, four of them in a row between 1981 and 1984. Manchester City are on nine, Manchester United on six, Chelsea and Aston Villa on five.

On 27 August 2025, League Two Grimsby Town drew 2-2 with Manchester United at Blundell Park in front of 8,647 and won the shoot-out 12-11. They then won 1-0 at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday and reached the fourth round as the lowest-ranked club left in the draw, where Brentford saw them off 5-0 at Blundell Park. By the quarter-finals only one non-Premier League side survived: League One Cardiff City, who had won 2-1 at Turf Moor and 2-1 at Wrexham before losing 3-1 to Chelsea in front of 33,027.

At the other end, Manchester City did the job quietly. They removed holders Newcastle United in the semi-finals 5-1 on aggregate: 0-2 at St James' Park with 51,392 watching, then 3-1 at the Etihad with two goals from Omar Marmoush. In the final on 22 March 2026, before 88,486 at Wembley, they beat Mikel Arteta's Arsenal 2-0 through two Nico O'Reilly headers on 60 and 64 minutes, the first from a Rayan Cherki cross, the second from Matheus Nunes.

It was City's ninth title and Pep Guardiola's fifth, more than any other manager in the competition's history. The season produced 93 matches, 254 goals and 1,489,309 spectators, and a leading scorer on just five: Diego Gómez.

Nine Premier League clubs are in Europe this season: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool in the Champions League; Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Sunderland in the Europa League; Brighton in the Conference League. Because all nine enter at round three, the numbers no longer worked, and out of that comes a four-team preliminary round. It pairs the two clubs promoted from the National League, York City and Rochdale, with the two who survived at the bottom of League Two, Tranmere Rovers and Crawley Town. Tranmere host Rochdale on 1 August at Prenton Park and York host Crawley on 3 August at the York Community Stadium; the two survivors travel to Valley Parade and Vicarage Road.

The first round follows from 6 to 10 August: 70 teams, 35 ties, the draw split into northern and southern halves. The three clubs relegated from the Premier League in May all open at home — Wolverhampton Wanderers host Port Vale at Molineux, Burnley host Notts County at Turf Moor and West Ham host Portsmouth at the London Stadium. In the same batch, Middlesbrough await Wrexham and Plymouth Argyle meet Exeter City in the Devon derby.

Manchester City defend the trophy and will not appear until round three. Waiting for them are the Arsenal side who lost the last final, the Newcastle side who won the 2025 one, and a Liverpool with ten of these already in the cabinet. The final is on 21 March 2027.

Seven rounds for 92 clubs, built around one obsession: that exactly 32 remain by round three. Championship, League One and League Two clubs come in at round one; the eleven Premier League clubs without European commitments at round two; the nine who have them at round three. Everything is single-leg except the semi-finals, which have been two-legged since the very first edition.

Since 2018-19 there is no extra time in any round but the final: level after ninety minutes and the tie goes straight to penalties, and away goals no longer count in the semi-finals either. VAR has been in use since 2024-25, but only at Premier League grounds, so a tie at Gresty Road or Blundell Park is refereed by the naked eye. The preliminary round is the genuine oddity in the rulebook: across 67 editions it has been needed only four times, in 2002-03, 2011-12, 2025-26 and now.

The final has been a single match at Wembley since 1967, with a spell at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium while the stadium was rebuilt. The winner takes England's place in the play-off round of the 2027-28 Conference League — which is why a mid-table club takes all of this very seriously come January.