Season start date confirmed. + fixture release date (1 Viewer)

[jordan210]

The 2020/21 season dates across the Sky Bet EFL, Carabao Cup and the EFL Trophy have been confirmed, with the Carabao Cup officially kicking off the EFL season with an action-packed month of cup football to follow throughout September.

The 2020/21 Championship fixture schedule will be released on Friday 21 August at 9am.

Carabao Cup


The 2020/21 competition has seen a number of significant scheduling changes with two legged semi-finals being replaced by a single tie and the first four rounds scheduled to take place on consecutive weeks, kicking off in early September.

Round One fixtures are scheduled to take place on Saturday 5 September, but due to the international window may be played on alternative dates. Rounds Two, Three and Four will be played on consecutive midweeks dates starting 15/16 September.

Premier League sides will enter the competition in Round Two or Round Three if they are competing in European competition in season 2020/21.

The Draw for the Round One will take place on Sky Sports News on Tuesday 18 August 2020, time TBC.

As per the previous two seasons, the Round One draw will be divided into a northern and southern section but will remain unseeded.

The dates for the 2020/21 Carabao Cup are as follows:

Round One	5 September 2020 (alternative dates may apply)
Round Two	15/16 September 2020
Round Three	22/23 September 2020
Round Four	29/30 September 2020
Round Five	22/23 December 2020
Semi-Finals	5/6 January 2021 (tie to be played at the venue of Club drawn out first)
Final	28 February 2021

Sky Bet EFL

As previously advised, League competition in the Sky Bet EFL will kick-off on Saturday 12 September, while the regular seasons in the Sky Bet Championship, League One and League Two will conclude on 8/9 May 2021.

Due to the unprecedented challenges facing the fixture calendar as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and starting six weeks later than usual, the Sky Bet EFL Championship will feature 13 midweek match rounds whilst League One and League Two will have 11 respectively throughout season 2020/21.

The season will culminate in the Sky Bet Play-Off Finals taking place at Wembley Stadium over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend 29-31 May 2021.

The 2020/21 Sky Bet EFL fixture schedule will also be released on Friday 21 August at 9am.

 

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[sw88]

Anyone else thinking players are going to quickly burn out more this season than ever?

They’ve been Covid-19 guinea pigs to get games back underway (And to make sure as fewer losses are made in the game as possible imo, but that’s another story ) but I do think these schedules are being looked at with blinkers on.

I get these are extraordinary times no one could have envisaged, but footballers need a break too? They are human too after all

 

[cooperskyblue]

Anyone else thinking players are going to quickly burn out more this season than ever?

They’ve been Covid-19 guinea pigs to get games back underway (And to make sure as fewer losses are made in the game as possible imo, but that’s another story ) but I do think these schedules are being looked at with blinkers on.

I get these are extraordinary times no one could have envisaged, but footballers need a break too? They are human too after all

I tend to agree, but I think our players will be absolutely raring to go, they had a 150 day break themselves. It's more the other teams who played through until the end of the season to then go again 5 weeks later.

 

[covcity4life]

By end of September we will be into the quarter finals of league cup

Wow we are good

 

[Esoterica]

Anyone else thinking players are going to quickly burn out more this season than ever?

They’ve been Covid-19 guinea pigs to get games back underway (And to make sure as fewer losses are made in the game as possible imo, but that’s another story ) but I do think these schedules are being looked at with blinkers on.

I get these are extraordinary times no one could have envisaged, but footballers need a break too? They are human too after all

They will have had 6 months without a competitive game by the time we kick off. Barring injury, they won't get a longer break in all their careers!

 

[Orca]

Anyone else thinking players are going to quickly burn out more this season than ever?

They’ve been Covid-19 guinea pigs to get games back underway (And to make sure as fewer losses are made in the game as possible imo, but that’s another story ) but I do think these schedules are being looked at with blinkers on.

I get these are extraordinary times no one could have envisaged, but footballers need a break too? They are human too after all

We might have an advantage here. We didn't play a league game since lockdown and although the players would have been told to keep fit, they're not under the weekly pressure of training and games. They might not have been able to get out to Ibiza, but they've had a break.

Clubs who have remained in the Championship would have been under a different sort of physical regime as their season did resume. It will be interesting to see if you're right though.

 

[Liquid Gold]

I'm very excited about this but find it weird that I don't have a new shirt or season ticket first.

 

[pusbccfc]

Am I the only one not looking forward to this? Just going to be a list of games we are almost certainly not going to be able to go to - at least not as normal.

Wonder if Sky are continuing to show all midweek games?

 

[RegTheDonk]

Not wanting to think we're big boys and it's beneath us, but I unfortunately see the league cup as an unecessary distraction. How many kids can you put out without having your hand slapped?

Also - were there plans for a winter break this year, which presumably have now gone out the window?

 

[Briles]

Anyone else thinking players are going to quickly burn out more this season than ever?

They’ve been Covid-19 guinea pigs to get games back underway (And to make sure as fewer losses are made in the game as possible imo, but that’s another story ) but I do think these schedules are being looked at with blinkers on.

I get these are extraordinary times no one could have envisaged, but footballers need a break too? They are human too after all

At least we haven't got the Leasing.com Trophy to worry about.

 

[Skyblueweeman]

They will have had 6 months without a competitive game by the time we kick off. Barring injury, they won't get a longer break in all their careers!

Totally agree. If anything, certainly for us, Rotherham and Wycombe, it'll be the freshest they'll ever enter a season. Less so the rest but you're right...they've all had at least two, maybe three months off.

 

[sw88]

At least we haven't got the Leasing.com Trophy to worry about.

Unless we enter a u21 team?

 

[shmmeee]

Unless we enter a u21 team?

Prem only isn’t it?

 

[sw88]

Prem only isn’t it?

I thought championship could too? Am I year too early?

 

[skybluesam66]

Prem get first choice, goes to championship if not enough prem. And then i think they look at cat 1 academies first (We are cat 2)

 

[Nick]

Am I the only one not looking forward to this? Just going to be a list of games we are almost certainly not going to be able to go to - at least not as normal.

Wonder if Sky are continuing to show all midweek games?

Going to them or not, better than the shit Premier League stuff that's been on when it means something.