Early hours third-round draw brings more ridicule for EFL Cup

Dom Farrell

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Early hours third-round draw brings more ridicule for EFL Cup image

The English Football League have come in for criticism after announcing an unusual draw time for the third round of the EFL Cup.

As part of its link up with Thai energy drinks company and title sponsor Carabao, the EFL will stage the draw in Beijing on Thursday at 11.15am in the Chinese capital.

This amounts to 04.15am BST, with fans facing an early start if they want to learn who the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal will play as it happens.

Red Devils 6/1 to retain trophy

Previous draws during Carabao's maiden season in association with the competition have not run smoothly.

During the first-round draw in Bangkok, an on-screen graphics error showed Charlton Athletic to have be drawn twice.

After a convoluted round-two draw, the EFL was forced to clarify whether certain teams had been drawn at home or away after clubs including Watford, Norwich City, Charlton and Brentford tweeted their confusion.

Manchester United are the competition's holders after beating Southampton 3-2 in last season's EFL Cup final at Wembley.

 

 

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.