The EFL Cup will have an additional round for 2025-26 due to the number of Premier League teams which will be involved in the European competition.
Nine Premier League teams are expected to participate in UEFA tournaments next season.
Six Premier League teams will appear in the Champions League, including the Champions of Liverpool and Newcastle United, who beat Reds 2-1 in the final EFL Cup of this year to end a expectation of 70 years for a major domestic trophy.
They will be joined by Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and the winners of the Europa Tottenham League.
The winners of Aston Villa and the FA Cup, Crystal Palace, should enter the Europa League, although the latter’s participation is in doubt due to a potential violation of UEFA multi-club property rules. John Textor is the owner of Eagle Football, who has a 43% stake in Palace. However, Eagle Football also has 77% participation in the French team Lyon, which has also qualified for the Europa League.
Meanwhile, the Nottingham forest is expected to participate in the league of the conference after finishing seventh.
Premier League clubs in European competition do not enter the EFL Cup before the third round. However, to accommodate these nine teams, the EFL has chosen to introduce a preliminary round with four teams, reducing the number of sides in the rounds one and two.
It will be made up of the two promoted parts of the National League, Barnet and Oldham Athletic, and the teams that finished third and fourth at the bottom of League two, Newport County and accrington Stanley.
The links will be regionalized in the North and the South, which means that Agington will face Oldham and Newport will face Barnet and will take place during the week to start on August 4.
The draw for the first round will take place on June 26, with these links during the week from August 11.
Newcastle will start its defense in the third round, with the Magpies and the other eight European teams contesting these links in the weeks starting on September 15 and September 22.
