EFL admit Carabao Cup draw blunder which saw Newcastle and Norwich mixed up… with Magpies handed brutal fixture in the third round against Man City!

The EFL have acknowledged the brutal blunder made on Wednesday evening in the third round of the Carabao Cup which resulted in Newcastle drawing Manchester City at home rather than Fulham away.

The third round draw came after the final round two clashes came to an end on Wednesday evening, with both Newcastle and Man City entering the draw at this stage after impressive campaigns in the 2022-23 season.

The Magpies even reached the final of the competition last time, but lost to Manchester United 2-0 at Wembley, while City completed a historic Treble and won the FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League.

However, with Newcastle fans hoping for a strong Carabao Cup run, Eddie Howe’s side were given arguably the toughest possible draw, named as Pep Guardiola’s City opponents when their number 20 was picked.

But as ball numbers are usually handed out in alphabetical order, Newcastle might have expected to get number 19 instead of number 20, while Norwich inexplicably took number 19, despite coming after the Magpies in the alphabet.

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The Canaries were given a more favorable outing to Fulham, although the Championship side will still struggle to progress against top tier opponents.

When the draw was broadcast on Sky Sports, the blunder did not escape public attention, and the EFL has since acknowledged the mistake, although a spokesman stated that guidelines do not state that numbers should be given based on alphabetical order, and as such the league’s integrity has not been compromised.

Balls 28-32 were held in reserve to be distributed to the teams in action on Wednesday night, with the list submitted before the game ended, emphasizing that not all teams need to be in alphabetical order.

However, of the other 27 balls submitted, only Newcastle and Norwich were submitted out of this order.

“The figures for the third round draw of the Carabao Cup were allocated and communicated prior to the draw which took place on Wednesday evening and were drawn in accordance with the usual strict protocols and conditions,” they said via Express Sport:

The League accepts that the list published was not in alphabetical order, but under cup rules, the draw does not require numbers to be allocated on that basis, as evidenced by the teams progressing Wednesday night.

“As a result, the EFL considers the draw to be fully valid with no impact on the integrity of the competition.”

The neutrals will no doubt be pleased to see two of the country’s top sides pitted against each other at an early stage, with a mouth-watering clash now on offer. The matches in the third round of the competition will take place in the week of September 25.