Everton to play Wolves in Carabao Cup 3rd Round

Hopefully, we put on a good show to solidify your grandkids' loyalties.

I'd be more than happy with that.

If they’re playing in the round why does it matter who they play?

Completely corrupt and if a team like us or Villa win the thing at least we will have done it legitimately and without favours.

The reason Premier League clubs competing in the Champions League and Europa League are given a preferential draw in the Carabao Cup third round, ensuring they do not play each other, is to prevent fixture clashes.

Here is a breakdown of the key factors:

Scheduling Conflicts: The Carabao Cup third round fixtures are scheduled across two weeks to accommodate the early stages of the Champions League and Europa League, which also have matches scheduled during this period.

UEFA Fixtures Take Precedence: The fixtures for UEFA competitions cannot be rescheduled. To ensure that Premier League clubs can fulfill their European commitments without disrupting the Carabao Cup schedule or other domestic league fixtures, the draw is structured to keep the European competitors separate.

The Draw Mechanic: The English Football League (EFL), which organizes the Carabao Cup, uses a specific process for the third-round draw:

The teams participating in the Champions League and Europa League are placed in a separate "bowl" or pot.

A "pre-draw" is conducted to determine whether each of these teams will play at home or away.

The main draw then pairs each of these European clubs with a team from a separate bowl containing the remaining clubs.

This ensures that no two European clubs can be drawn against each other in this round.

The EFL has stated that this is not their preference and that these changes have been "forced upon us" due to the expansion of the European competition calendar and what they describe as UEFA's failure to consult with domestic leagues when finalizing their schedules.

It's important to note that this special condition does not apply to clubs in the UEFA Conference League, as the group stages of that competition begin at a later date and do not clash with the Carabao Cup third round. Additionally, this preferential treatment is only for the third round and does not carry over to subsequent rounds of the Carabao Cup.

Is it because a team in the Champions League, playing in week 1 of Round 3 could in theory be drawn against a Europa League team set to play in Week 2 of Round 3?

Just typical that they come up with a solution that favours all of those teams, rather than just do a straight fair draw, and see if there is an issue, then pop those balls back in the pot and redraw till there is no schedule clash?

A 2pm (BST) kick-off, the game will be hosted at Goodison Park

Sad to see it go but inevitable really. I’m not sure what could be made of it, unless attendance picks up massively for the women’s games.

Hopefully it will soon materialise into the Masters PL. Whereby the favoured ones wont have to endure the hardship of the first half dozen games. Instead of fulfilling fixtures they will be awarded points at Masters discretion.

They will get Xmas and January off too because of fixture congestion and the need to rest because its such a terribly hard game.

Just watched QPR v Leeds, 1976 and noticed a distinct lack of shitty tippy tappy football. Fast play. Decent wingers. Hard play. Keepers Harvey n Parkes without gloves and only 1 sub allowed. It was a way better watch than this horseshit of today.

On a crappy pitch great football was played.

Ahhhh refreshing