The draw for Round One of the 2017/18 Carabao Cup will be streamed live from Bangkok, Thailand on Friday 16 June at 1:00pm (UK time).
World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit, Carabao CEO Sathien Setthasit, British Ambassador to Thailand Brian Davidson and EFL Chief Executive Shaun Harvey will unveil the 35 Round One ties from the home of the competition’s title sponsor, Carabao Energy Drink. Fans will be able to watch the draw unfold live on various platforms, including EFL’s new live streaming platform, iFollow, on Facebook via the Carabao Cup and Carabao UK pages and SkySports.com.
Nearly 1.5 million people went to matches in the EFL Cup last season as the competition recorded record breaking attendances. Victory in the competition’s final will guarantee the winner the first piece of silverware of the domestic season and a place in the Europa League in the following campaign.
Seventy EFL Clubs will be in the draw with matches scheduled to take place week commencing 7 August, with Sunderland included. Championship newcomers Hull City and Middlesbrough will join the competition in Round Two alongside the Premier League clubs that are not competing in Europe.
The draw is also regionalised to minimise travelling time for supporters in the first round with seeding decided by a Club’s finishing position in the EFL.
This year’s final in February saw Manchester United beat Southampton 3-2 in front of over 85,000 people. The 2017/18 Carabao Cup Final, the 58th in the competition’s history, will take place at Wembley Stadium on 25th February.
Due to the global appeal of the competition, Carabao, the Thai energy drinks brand, became title sponsor to the competition and official EFL partner earlier this year, with the exclusive partnership running until 2020. It is anticipated that the relationship with Carabao Energy Drink will increase that further, providing the opportunity to reach new audiences in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The EFL Carabao partnership also represents a truly powerful and unique platform to expand the Carabao brand and establish Carabao as a major player in the global Energy Drinks market.
The newly named Carabao Cup offers a significant opportunity for the Thai brand to engage with football fans - a third of whom drink energy drinks - via its association with one of the biggest football competitions in the country, and Carabao plans to bring this partnership to life at every opportunity for customers and consumers.
As well as the partnership with the EFL, Carabao Energy Drink is also a Principal Partner of the Premier League champions, Chelsea FC, and the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Finalists, Reading FC. Internationally, Carabao is also a partner of Flamengo in Brazil and Apollon FC in Cyprus.
Carabao, established fifteen years ago in Thailand, the home of energy drinks, is a premium, great tasting energy boost, designed to give consumers the energy they need to achieve their everyday goals. The drink takes inspiration from ’the Carabao’, the revered Asian water-buffalo, admired for its physical power, extraordinary stamina and unbreakable spirit.
Carabao is sold in 330ml cans and currently available in four variants: Original, Sugar Free, Green Apple and Green Apple Sugar Free, with further flavour launches planned before the end of 2017.
Seeding, regionalisation and ball numbers within seeding groups
North – Seeds
1. Barnsley
2. Blackburn Rovers
3. Bolton Wanderers
4. Bradford City
5. Burton Albion
6. Derby County
7. Fleetwood Town
8. Leeds United
9. Nottingham Forest
10. Preston North End
11. Rochdale
12. Rotherham United
13. Scunthorpe United
14. Sheffield United
15. Sheffield Wednesday
16. Sunderland
17. Wigan Athletic
North – Non-Seeds
18. Accrington Stanley
19. Blackpool
20. Bury
21. Carlisle United
22. Chesterfield
23. Coventry City
24. Crewe Alexandra
25. Doncaster Rovers
26. Grimsby Town
27. Lincoln City
28. Mansfield Town
29. Morecambe
30. Notts County
31. Oldham Athletic
32. Port Vale
33. Shrewsbury Town
34. Walsall
South – Seeds
1. Aston Villa
2. Birmingham City
3. Brentford
4. Bristol City
5. Bristol Rovers
6. Cardiff City
7. Charlton Athletic
8. Fulham
9. Ipswich Town
10. Millwall
11. Milton Keynes Dons
12. Norwich City
13. Oxford United
14. Peterborough United
15. Queens Park Rangers
16. Reading
17. Southend United
18. Wolverhampton Wanderers
South – Non-Seeds
19. AFC Wimbledon
20. Barnet
21. Cambridge United
22. Cheltenham Town
23. Colchester United
24. Crawley Town
25. Exeter City
26. Forest Green Rovers
27. Gillingham
28. Luton Town
29. Newport County
30. Northampton Town
31. Plymouth Argyle
32. Portsmouth
33. Stevenage
34. Swindon Town
35. Wycombe Wanderers
36. Yeovil Town