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English soccer officials are making changes to the 2024/25 EFL Cup, also known as the League Cup or the Carabao Cup. According to The Telegraph, next season’s competition will see a new seeding system implemented to combat fixture congestion. Despite repeated concerns by players and coaches, FIFA and UEFA expanded several of their tournaments in recent months. The new tweaks to the Carabao Cup are directly due to the upcoming changes in the Champions League.
The new system guarantees big clubs avoid facing each other in the early rounds of the domestic tournament. In particular, teams that are featuring in the Champions League and Europa League will now not be able to play each other in rounds three and four. Premier League sides officially enter the annual competition in the second round. However, clubs involved in Europe do not begin their Carabao Cup run until the following round.
In addition to the change, third-round matchups will play out over two full weeks. This maneuver is also being introduced to help ease fixture congestion as well. The third round of the Carabao Cup is currently scheduled around the same time as the Champions League and Europa League games.
MLS, US Soccer recently fought about similar issues with US Open Cup
The pending moves come after officials announced significant changes to the FA Cup. It was revealed in April that the Football Association (FA) and Premier League both agreed to cancel FA Cup replays. The decision eases scheduling concerns from the big clubs, but also potentially hurts lower-level teams. Replays offer smaller sides the chance to generate extra money by hosting the established, popular clubs.
Here in the United States, there was recently a significant fight over Major League Soccer‘s involvement in the U.S. Open Cup. The top flight previously announced that their teams would not participate in the 2024 version of the competition. After U.S. Soccer initially rejected the claim, the organization…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/efl-cup-introduces-changes-to-help-avoid-us-open-cup-debacle/
Author : Chris Moore
Publish date : 2024-05-29 19:34:16
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