When Barnet and Oldham Athletic clinched promotion back to the Football League this spring, few would have expected their reward to be an extra fixture before the season even begins. Yet that’s exactly what awaits them, along with Accrington Stanley and Newport County, who finished 21st and 22nd in League Two, in a newly introduced Carabao Cup Preliminary Round.
This is the first time since 2011/12 that a preliminary stage has been required, and its reintroduction has sparked unease across the lower leagues. While officially a scheduling adjustment, many see it as further proof of a growing trend – domestic competitions reshaped around the needs of Premier League giants, while asking smaller clubs to carry more of the load.
A full explanation can be found here:
What’s changed in 2025/26?
With nine Premier League clubs qualifying for European competition – Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest, and Crystal Palace, (pending UEFA approval due to ownership links with Lyon) – all are set to enter the Carabao Cup in Round Three.
To accommodate this, the EFL has trimmed the field by introducing a four-team Preliminary Round, scheduled for the week commencing 4 August 2025. The round will feature Barnet taking on Newport County, and Accrington Stanley facing Oldham Athletic.
The matches will be regionalised (North/South) in line with Round One protocol, and the home teams will be drawn live on Sky Sports News on Thursday 26 June, alongside the full Round One draw.
The two winners will join the rest of the EFL, 70 clubs, in Round One the following week. Round Two will welcome the 11 Premier League clubs not in Europe, before the European contingent joins in Round Three.
This format echoes 2011/12, when Europa League participation for Birmingham City and Fulham led to a one-off preliminary round. That year, Crawley Town defeated AFC Wimbledon 3-2 in a rare curtain-raiser between fourth-tier sides.
A necessary fix or a quiet punishment?
From a scheduling perspective, the logic is clear. Nine Premier League clubs in Europe create a lopsided bracket that the EFL needed to straighten out. But for those lower down the pyramid, the fix feels less like a solution and more like a soft punishment.
The four clubs asked to compete in the preliminary round are, in effect, treated as surplus. Rather than starting the Carabao Cup on level footing, they’re tasked with clearing an extra hurdle just to earn entry into Round One.
For clubs like Barnet and Oldham, facing significant summer rebuilds to prepare for life back in the EFL, an extra competitive fixture in early August is far from ideal. Pre-season plans must now adapt to include a knockout game with real stakes before a ball is even kicked in League Two.
Meanwhile, the very clubs this format protects, the Premier League elite, enjoy lucrative pre-season tours, vast squads, and carefully managed workloads. And they enter the competition three rounds later.
Who Is This Competition Really For?
The Carabao Cup has become the most flexible of English football’s major competitions. It has trialled VAR, regionalised early rounds, double-legged semi-finals, and even stadium PA referee announcements. But rarely has a change made the power dynamic so clear.
This is not just an extra round, it’s a structural adjustment to maintain convenience for clubs with European football commitments. That might make sense on a whiteboard, but in the lived reality of lower-league football, it’s another unfortunate reminder that the system bends towards those at the top.
Other options were available: scrapping two-legged semi-finals or revisiting the guaranteed Round Three entry for European clubs. But instead, the burden has been nudged down the ladder, with the EFL relying on the compliance of clubs least equipped to challenge the move.
You wonder how Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta might respond if Manchester City or Arsenal were told to play a preliminary round in early August just to qualify for Round One.
The Bigger Picture
To some, this will feel trivial. Just one extra match between four sides unlikely to make a deep cup run. But for Barnet, Oldham, Accrington, and Newport, it matters. These are clubs who’ve fought to stay afloat, or to claw their way out of the National League. Starting the season in what amounts to a qualifier chips away at that achievement.
And in the context of recent changes, from the abolition of FA Cup replays to the restructuring of the prize money distribution, this tweak fits into a broader pattern. The divide between the Premier League and the rest is no longer about money or media attention. It’s structural, embedded in how competitions are now formatted and prioritised.
The Carabao Cup may be low on the priority list for many in the Premier League. But for smaller clubs, it’s a chance at prize money, a night against one of the country’s elites, a shot at a giant-killing. When that opportunity is made harder to reach, it’s fair to ask: who are these competitions really serving? Let us know your opinions!
