The English Football League Cup 2025-26 started with the preliminary matches on 5 August 2025
Find out all about the English Football League Cup, including the preview, history, and full winners list
Find out when and where to watch the English Football League Cup 2025-26 matches live online and on TV in India and elsewhere
The 65th edition of the English Football League Cup, or simply the League Cup, officially kicked off with the preliminary round matches between newly promoted League Two sides, Barnet and Oldham Athletic, and the two lowest teams not relegated from the League Two 2024-25 season, Accrington Stanley and Newport County.
Here's all you need to know about the League Cup 2025-26, featuring as many as 92 clubs from the top four tiers of English and Welsh football.
In the Northern section, Accrington Stanley beat Oldham Athletic 3-1, while Newport County survived a penalty shoot-out (4-2) against Barnet in the Southern section. The first round of the Carabao Cup, for sponsorship reasons, starts Tuesday (August 12, 2025) with some mouth-watering clashes.
League Cup Explained
Founded in 1960 as the Football League Cup, it assumed the current moniker, although with varied aliases, only nine years ago in 2016. Alongside the FA Cup, it is one of the two major domestic knockout competitions in English football. And the winners qualify for the UEFA Conference League.
In the previous edition, Newcastle United beat eventual English Premier League champions Liverpool 2-1 in the Wembley final for their first League Cup title. The season also witnessed eight top-tier teams making the quarter-finals, a first since the 2009-10 edition.
League Cup, however, is known for cup shocks, like the ones inflicted on Manchester United by MK Dons a decade ago, or Northampton Town's stunning penalty shoot-out win against Liverpool in the 2010-11 edition.
And the tournament proper begins once the big boys from the top tier join the competition, in the third round.
League Cup Winners List
So far, 24 clubs have won the EFL Cup, with Liverpool being the most successful outfit. The Reds lifted their record-extending 10th title in 2024. Manchester rivals, City (8) and United (6), are second and third, respectively. Chelsea and Aston Villa (the first winners), with five each, complete the top five.
The League Cup is not a preserve of top-tier teams, though. In the 1991 final, just before the launch of the Premier League era, Sheffield Wednesday, then in the Second Division, beat a star-studded Manchester United side in a historic title showdown. That win, as it turned out, remains the only instance of a team from outside the top flight to have won the League Cup, in fact, any major trophy in England.
Teams from lower tiers have reached the finals, of course. And since that 1991 final, six teams from outside the top tier have reached the final: Bolton Wanderers (1995), Middlesbrough (1998), Tranmere Rovers (2000), Birmingham City (2001), Cardiff City (2012), and Bradford City (2013).
In the 2013 final, fourth-tier outfit Bradford City lost 0-5 to Swansea City, who themselves became the first non-English club to win the League Cup.
League Cup 2025-26 Key Dates
Round One: 11 August 2025
Round Two: 25 August 2025
Round Three: 15 and 22 September 2025
Round Four: 27 October 2025
Round Five: 15 December 2025
Semi-Final First Leg: 12 January 2026
Semi-Final Second Leg: 2 February 2026
Final: 22 March 2026
League Cup 2025-26 Live Streaming Details
The English Football League Cup 2025-26 will have select matches live-streamed on the FanCode app and website in India. Fans in the UK can watch all the matches on Sky Sports+.
There will be no television broadcast of the EFL Cup 2025-26 matches.
