Next season’s Carabao Cup will feature a new “preliminary round” – although it won’t affect Wanderers and their League One rivals.
The EFL has announced that two qualifying matches will be played before the opening round of the competition takes place.
Barnet and Oldham, both promoted clubs from the National League, will face Accrington Stanley and Newport County, who finished 21st and 22nd respective in the League Two.
The ties will be regionalised, with Accrington facing Oldham in the northern fixture and Barnet taking on Newport in the southern.
The change has been introduced due to nine Premier League clubs competing in European competitions next term.
Now, slightly fewer clubs will be involved in the first and second rounds to accommodate those Premier League sides in the third.
An official update read: “This season’s Carabao Cup will require a Preliminary Round to be introduced ahead of Round One due to nine Premier League teams being involved in European competition in 2025/26.
“The format of the Carabao Cup will be amended to introduce a four-team preliminary qualifying round, to reduce the number of clubs in Round One and Round Two in order to accommodate all Premier League European clubs in Round Three.”
The first-round draw will take place at 4.30pm on fixture release day (Thursday, June 26) and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports News. The preliminary round will also be drawn at this time to determine the home teams.
Preliminary round ties are scheduled to be played in the week commencing Monday, August 4 and opening round fixtures will take place the following week.
Wanderers reached the third round of the competition last season after overcoming Mansfield and Shrewsbury. The Whites were knocked out by Arsenal at the Emirates.
Former Bolton defender Adam Senior could be involved in the new preliminary round after signing for Barnet last month.
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