I'm sure this is me being dumb, and it's something that everyone else understands...So, can someone explain to me how it's decided which Championship clubs have a 'bye' into the 2nd round of the CO Cup and which others don't? Thanks in advance!
We're the only football league team that gets a bye, having finished 18th in the Premier League last season.
I think that is as straightforward as 23 teams being in the Championship being an odd number so the team that finished 3rd from bottom in the Premiership - us - gets a bye.
Ah, ok. Makes sense. Thanks. I just couldn't see Fulham's fixture anywhere either. Must have missed it.
Fulham have a bye too. It's worked out thus: Deducting the three teams promoted to the premier leaves 69. Add Cardiff to that for finishing bottom leaves 70. This means 35 who will qualify for round two. Add us and Fulham, plus the premier teams not involved in Europe (13) totals 50. 25 therefore make it to round three, where they are joined by the 7 teams involved in Europe. This leaves a nicely divisible 32! Easy!
Now that's exactly what I was looking for online, but couldn't find! I can rest easy now. Cheers Gandy
That is pretty easy in real terms to work out. If you look at the BBC site for the FA Cup draws (which starts this weekend by the way) and look at the pre Qualifying draws and the through to the Preliminary rounds knowing that by the time you reach December all of the teams in the pyramid would have been introduced, leaving just 64 teams to compete in Round 3.
