The 2020-21 edition of theCarabao Cup began in August, withChampionship, League One and League Two sides entering the competition. Manchester City lifted their seventhCarabao Cup and third title in a row after beating Aston Villa in last season's final back in March. Goal has your complete guide, including participating teams, full draw information, fixture schedules and results.Carabao Cup formatCarabao Cup finalCarabao Cup semi-finalsCarabao Cup quarter-finalsCarabao Cup fourth roundCarabao Cup third roundCarabao Cup second roundCarabao Cup first roundCarabao Cup on TVCarabao Cup rulesAway goalsWhy is the League Cup called the Carabao Cup?Past winners CarabaoCup 2020-21formatAll 92 clubs competingin the Premier League and the English Football League enter the 2020-21 CarabaoCup, with participation distributed across the divisions.The competition will be played over seven rounds, with single-leg ties throughout.The previous two-legged tie for the semi-final was scrapped in favour of one.In round one, the draw was split into northern and southern clubs with 22 Championship sides and all League One and League Two clubs entering. Carabao Cup 2020-21 finalThe Carabao Cup 2020-21 final will be played at Wembley Stadium on Sunday April 25, 2021. It will kick off at 4pm GMT (11am ET)It had originally been scheduled for February 28, 2021, but the EFL made the decision to rearrange the date in order to increase the chances of supporters being able to attend.A statement released in December confirmed the news, saying: "It is the objective of the League to stage the final with as many supporters in attendance as possible and the decision has therefore been taken to move the final from its original date of SundayFebruary 28, 2021 to later in the year."The number of fans permitted will be dependent on government guidance in place at the time and it is hoped that moving the date to later in the year will give clubs and their fans the best opportunity to attend in person."Date Fixture Apr 25 Winner of semi-final 1 vs Winner of semi-final 2 Carabao Cup 2020-21 semi-finalsThe Carabao Cup 2020-21 semi-finals will be played from January 4, 2021, with the games being played over one leg rather than two to help with fixture congestion.Manchester United will host rivals Manchester City at Old Trafford in a huge derby encounter while Tottenham will host Championship outfit Brentford in north London.Date Fixture Jan 4(TBC) Manchester United vs Manchester City Jan 4 (TBC) Tottenham vs Brentford Carabao Cup 2020-21 quarter-finalsThe quarter-final ties will be played the week startingDecember 21.Manchester City compounded Mikel Arteta's woes by inflicting a 4-1 defeat on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, closing off a potential avenue for redemption for the Gunners boss.They were to be joined in the final four by local rivals Manchester United, who scored two late goals to see of Everton.Championship promotion contenders Brentford sprung a surprise by beating Newcastle United.Tottenham also faced Championship opposition in the form of Stoke City, beating them 3-1 at the bet365 Stadium.Date Fixture Dec 22 Brentford 1-0 Newcastle United Dec 22 Arsenal 1-4 Manchester City Dec 23 Stoke City 1-3 Tottenham Dec 23 Everton 0-2 Manchester United Carabao Cup 2020-21 fourth roundThe fourth round ties were played the week commencing September 28.Tottenham advanced to the quarter-finals over Chelsea through penalty shootout, while Liverpool were outdone by Arsenal in the same manner.Man Utd beat Brighton 3-0 to progress, while Man City registered victory against Burnley by the same scoreline.Date Fixture Sep 29 Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea (5-4 pens.) Sep 30 Newport County 1-1 Newcastle United (4-5 pens.) Sep 30 Burnley 0-3 Manchester City Sep 30 Everton 4-1 West Ham Sep 30 Brighton 0-3 Manchester United Oct 1 Brentford 3-0 Fulham Oct 1 Aston Villa 0-1 Stoke City Oct 1 Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal (4-5 pens.) Carabao Cup 2020-21 third roundThe likes of Arsenal,Chelsea,Leicester City,Liverpool,Manchester City,Manchester UnitedandTottenham Hotspur were automatically registered forthe third round due to their participation in European competitions.Leyton Orient's match against Tottenham was called off due to the home side announcing positive Covid-19 cases , with Spurs handed a bye for the fourth round.The draw was conducted on September 6, and was played the week commencing September 21.Date Fixture Sep 22 Leyon Orient A-A Tottenham (Spurs handed bye) Sep 22 Newport County 3-1 Watford Sep 22 West Brom 2-2 Brentford (4-5 pens.) Sep 22 West Ham 5-1 Hull City Sep 22 Luton Town 0-3 Man Utd Sep 23 Preston North End 0-2 Brighton Sep 23 Chelsea 6-0 Barnlsey Sep 23 Fleetwood Town 2-5 Everton Sep 23 Fulham 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday Sep 23 Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal Sep 23 Millwall 0-2 Burnley Sep 23 Morecambe 0-7 Newcastle United Sep 23 Stoke City 1-0 Gillingham Sep 24 Bristol City 0-3 Aston Villa Sep 24 Lincoln City 2-7 Liverpool Sep 24 Manchester City 2-1 Bournemouth Carabao Cup 2020-21second roundFifty teams were involved in round two of the Carabao Cup, including Premier League clubs that are not participating in European competition.Like previous years, the draw was again split into 'northern' and 'southern' sections. The draw for the second round was made on September 6.Date Fixture Sep 15 Bournemouth 0-0 Crystal Palace (pens. 11-10) Sep 15 Bradford City 0-5 Lincoln City Sep 15 Burton Albion 1-3 Aston Villa Sep 15 Derby County 1-2 Preston North End Sep 15 Fleetwood Town 2-1 Port Vale Sep 15 Gillingham 1-1 Coventry City (5-4 pens.) Sep 15 Leyton Orient 3-2 Plymouth Argyle Sep 15 Middlesbrough 0-2 Barnsley Sep 15 Millwall 3-1 Cheltenham Town Sep 15 Morecambe 1-0 Oldham Athletic Sep 15 Newcastle United 1-0 Blackburn Rovers Sep 15 Newport County 1-0 Cambridge United Sep 15 Oxford United 1-1 Watford (0-3 pens.) Sep 15 Reading 0-1 Luton Town Sep 15 Rochdale 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday Sep 15 West Ham United 3-0 Charlton Athletic Sep 16 Bristol City 4-0 Northampton Town Sep 16 Everton 3-0 Salford City Sep 16 Ipswich Town 0-1 Fulham Sep 16 Leeds United 1-1 Hull City (8-9 pens.) Sep 16 Southampton 0-2 Brentford Sep 16 West Brom 3-0 Harrogate Town Sep 17 Brighton 4-0 Portsmouth Sep 17 Burnley 1-1 Sheffield United (5-4 pens.) Sep 17 Wolves 0-1 Stoke Carabao Cup 2020-21 first roundSeventy clubs participated in the first round, with 24 teams from League Two (tier four), 24 from League One (tier three), and 22 from the Championship (tier two).The draw was divided between 'northern' and 'southern' sections.Teams were drawn against a team from the same section.Date Fixture Aug 29 Preston North End 4-0 Mansfield Town Aug 29 Blackburn Rovers 3-2 Doncaster Rovers Aug 29 Stoke City 0-0 Blackpool (5-4 pens.) Aug 29 Stevenage 3-3 Portsmouth (1-3 pens.) Sep 4 Burton Albion 1-1 Accrington Stanley (4-2 pens.) Sep 4 Middlesbrough 4-3 Shrewsbury Town Sep 5 Derby County 0-0 Barrow (3-2 pens.) Sep 5 Plymouth Argyle 3-2 Queens Park Rangers Sep 5 Crawley Town 1-3 Millwall Sep 5 Gillingham 1-0 Southend United Sep 5 Bristol City 2-0 Exeter City Sep 5 Walsall 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday (2-4 pens.) Sep 5 Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Harrogate Town (7-8 pens.) Sep 5 Crewe Alexandra 1-2 Lincoln City Sep 5 Huddersfield Town 0-1 Rochdale Sep 5 Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Bradford City Sep 5 Fleetwood Town 3-2 Wigan Athletic Sep 5 Grimsby Town 1-1 Morecambe (3-4 pens.) Sep 5 Scunthorpe United 1-2 Port Vale Sep 5 Sunderland 0-0 Hull City (4-5 pens.) Sep 5 Salford City 1-1 Rotherham United (4-2 pens.) Sep 5 Barnsley 1-0 Nottingham Forest Sep 5 Oldham Athletic 3-0 Carlisle United Sep 5 Swindon Town 1-3 Charlton Athletic Sep 5 Forest Green Rovers 1-2 Leyton Orient Sep 5 Milton Keynes Dons 0-1 Coventry City Sep 5 Peterborough United 0-1 Cheltenham Town Sep 5 Northampton Town 3-0 Cardiff City Sep 5 Luton Town 3-1 Norwich City Sep 5 Birmingham City 0-1 Cambridge United Sep 5 Newport County 2-0 Swansea City Sep 5 Oxford United 1-1 Wimbledon (4-3 pens.) Sep 5 Reading 3-1 Colchester United Sep 5 Ipswich Town 3-0 Bristol Rovers Sep 6 Brentford 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers (4-2 pens.) Carabao Cup 2020-21 on TVIn the United Kingdom, the Carabao Cup will be broadcast and live-streamed on Sky Sports.In the United States, the competition will be shown on ESPN channels. Carabao Cup 2020-21 rulesAs was the case in 2019-20, extra-time will be abandoned for all rounds except for the final, with ties advancing straight to penalties in the event that the score is a draw at the end of regular time .This was introduced in order to limit issues of "additional fatigue", as Carabao Cup fixtures typically take place in the middle of the week.The ABBA penalty system trial was also eliminated, with the format for penalty shoot-outs now reverting to the standard ABAB penalty-taker order.Seeding has also been removed from the first two rounds.Video assistant refereeing (VAR) will continue to be in use in fixtures played at Premier League grounds.Additionally,this will mark the first instance in which the winnerwill also qualify for the play-offs of the brand-newEuropa Conference League, instead of thesecond qualifying round of the Europa League.All ties will be played as single legs. Will away goals count in the Carabao Cup semi-finals?If both teams are level after the end of full-time during the second leg of either of the semi-final ties, the game will go directly toa penalty shoot-out with a no away goals rule implemented - a rule which began in 2018-19.Previously, theaway-goal rule was used in the semi-final stage in the same manner as it is in the Champions League knockout rounds. If, for instance, the away team scored a goal in the first leg that ended in a 1-1 draw, with the second leg ending 0-0, then that team would have progressed to the final courtesy of the away-goals rule.Now, no such rule will be considered and second-leg stalemates will be decided ultimately by a penalty shoot-out. Why is the League Cup called the Carabao Cup?Until 2016, the tournament was named the English Football League Cup (EFL Cup) instead of the League Cup,following the rebranding of the Football League to the English Football League.Officially, the EFL Cup is known as the Carabao Cup due to the energy drink being the tournament's official sponsors.Prior to Carabao'ssponsorship of the tournament starting from 2017, the competition was called the EFL Cup (2016-17), the Capital One Cup (2012-13 to 2015-16), the Carling Cup (sponsored by Molson Coors from 2003-04 to2011-12), the Worthington Cup (sponsored by Worthington's from 1998-99 to 2002-03), and the Coca-Cola Cup (from 1992-93 to 1997-98). Carabao & League Cup past winners Getty https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/GOAL/6/df/liverpool-carling-cup-2012_3u5bo531fahe12w4agsol0c6j.png?t=959309685&w=500&quality=80
Liverpool have won the Carabao Cup the most times, winning their eighth in 2012 when they defeated Cardiff City on penalties. Behind them are Man City, who lifted their seventh Carabao Cup in 2020 when they beat Aston Villa through penalty shootout.Manchester United,Aston Villa and Chelsea have all won the Carabao Cup five times each.Tottenham and Nottingham Forest have both won the competition four times apiece.Only lists teams who have won the competition the most times.

The 2020-21 edition of theCarabao Cup began in August, withChampionship, League One and League Two sides entering the competition. Manchester City lifted their seventhCarabao Cup and third title in a row after beating Aston Villa in last season's final back in March. Goal has your complete guide, including participating teams, full draw information, fixture schedules and results.Carabao Cup formatCarabao Cup finalCarabao Cup semi-finalsCarabao Cup quarter-finalsCarabao Cup fourth roundCarabao Cup third roundCarabao Cup second roundCarabao Cup first roundCarabao Cup on TVCarabao Cup rulesAway goalsWhy is the League Cup called the Carabao Cup?Past winners CarabaoCup 2020-21formatAll 92 clubs competingin the Premier League and the English Football League enter the 2020-21 CarabaoCup, with participation distributed across the divisions.The competition will be played over seven rounds, with single-leg ties throughout.The previous two-legged tie for the semi-final was scrapped in favour of one.In round one, the draw was split into northern and southern clubs with 22 Championship sides and all League One and League Two clubs entering. Carabao Cup 2020-21 finalThe Carabao Cup 2020-21 final will be played at Wembley Stadium on Sunday April 25, 2021. It will kick off at 4pm GMT (11am ET)It had originally been scheduled for February 28, 2021, but the EFL made the decision to rearrange the date in order to increase the chances of supporters being able to attend.A statement released in December confirmed the news, saying: "It is the objective of the League to stage the final with as many supporters in attendance as possible and the decision has therefore been taken to move the final from its original date of SundayFebruary 28, 2021 to later in the year."The number of fans permitted will be dependent on government guidance in place at the time and it is hoped that moving the date to later in the year will give clubs and their fans the best opportunity to attend in person."Date Fixture Apr 25 Winner of semi-final 1 vs Winner of semi-final 2 Carabao Cup 2020-21 semi-finalsThe Carabao Cup 2020-21 semi-finals will be played from January 4, 2021, with the games being played over one leg rather than two to help with fixture congestion.Manchester United will host rivals Manchester City at Old Trafford in a huge derby encounter while Tottenham will host Championship outfit Brentford in north London.Date Fixture Jan 4(TBC) Manchester United vs Manchester City Jan 4 (TBC) Tottenham vs Brentford Carabao Cup 2020-21 quarter-finalsThe quarter-final ties will be played the week startingDecember 21.Manchester City compounded Mikel Arteta's woes by inflicting a 4-1 defeat on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, closing off a potential avenue for redemption for the Gunners boss.They were to be joined in the final four by local rivals Manchester United, who scored two late goals to see of Everton.Championship promotion contenders Brentford sprung a surprise by beating Newcastle United.Tottenham also faced Championship opposition in the form of Stoke City, beating them 3-1 at the bet365 Stadium.Date Fixture Dec 22 Brentford 1-0 Newcastle United Dec 22 Arsenal 1-4 Manchester City Dec 23 Stoke City 1-3 Tottenham Dec 23 Everton 0-2 Manchester United Carabao Cup 2020-21 fourth roundThe fourth round ties were played the week commencing September 28.Tottenham advanced to the quarter-finals over Chelsea through penalty shootout, while Liverpool were outdone by Arsenal in the same manner.Man Utd beat Brighton 3-0 to progress, while Man City registered victory against Burnley by the same scoreline.Date Fixture Sep 29 Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea (5-4 pens.) Sep 30 Newport County 1-1 Newcastle United (4-5 pens.) Sep 30 Burnley 0-3 Manchester City Sep 30 Everton 4-1 West Ham Sep 30 Brighton 0-3 Manchester United Oct 1 Brentford 3-0 Fulham Oct 1 Aston Villa 0-1 Stoke City Oct 1 Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal (4-5 pens.) Carabao Cup 2020-21 third roundThe likes of Arsenal,Chelsea,Leicester City,Liverpool,Manchester City,Manchester UnitedandTottenham Hotspur were automatically registered forthe third round due to their participation in European competitions.Leyton Orient's match against Tottenham was called off due to the home side announcing positive Covid-19 cases , with Spurs handed a bye for the fourth round.The draw was conducted on September 6, and was played the week commencing September 21.Date Fixture Sep 22 Leyon Orient A-A Tottenham (Spurs handed bye) Sep 22 Newport County 3-1 Watford Sep 22 West Brom 2-2 Brentford (4-5 pens.) Sep 22 West Ham 5-1 Hull City Sep 22 Luton Town 0-3 Man Utd Sep 23 Preston North End 0-2 Brighton Sep 23 Chelsea 6-0 Barnlsey Sep 23 Fleetwood Town 2-5 Everton Sep 23 Fulham 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday Sep 23 Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal Sep 23 Millwall 0-2 Burnley Sep 23 Morecambe 0-7 Newcastle United Sep 23 Stoke City 1-0 Gillingham Sep 24 Bristol City 0-3 Aston Villa Sep 24 Lincoln City 2-7 Liverpool Sep 24 Manchester City 2-1 Bournemouth Carabao Cup 2020-21second roundFifty teams were involved in round two of the Carabao Cup, including Premier League clubs that are not participating in European competition.Like previous years, the draw was again split into 'northern' and 'southern' sections. The draw for the second round was made on September 6.Date Fixture Sep 15 Bournemouth 0-0 Crystal Palace (pens. 11-10) Sep 15 Bradford City 0-5 Lincoln City Sep 15 Burton Albion 1-3 Aston Villa Sep 15 Derby County 1-2 Preston North End Sep 15 Fleetwood Town 2-1 Port Vale Sep 15 Gillingham 1-1 Coventry City (5-4 pens.) Sep 15 Leyton Orient 3-2 Plymouth Argyle Sep 15 Middlesbrough 0-2 Barnsley Sep 15 Millwall 3-1 Cheltenham Town Sep 15 Morecambe 1-0 Oldham Athletic Sep 15 Newcastle United 1-0 Blackburn Rovers Sep 15 Newport County 1-0 Cambridge United Sep 15 Oxford United 1-1 Watford (0-3 pens.) Sep 15 Reading 0-1 Luton Town Sep 15 Rochdale 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday Sep 15 West Ham United 3-0 Charlton Athletic Sep 16 Bristol City 4-0 Northampton Town Sep 16 Everton 3-0 Salford City Sep 16 Ipswich Town 0-1 Fulham Sep 16 Leeds United 1-1 Hull City (8-9 pens.) Sep 16 Southampton 0-2 Brentford Sep 16 West Brom 3-0 Harrogate Town Sep 17 Brighton 4-0 Portsmouth Sep 17 Burnley 1-1 Sheffield United (5-4 pens.) Sep 17 Wolves 0-1 Stoke Carabao Cup 2020-21 first roundSeventy clubs participated in the first round, with 24 teams from League Two (tier four), 24 from League One (tier three), and 22 from the Championship (tier two).The draw was divided between 'northern' and 'southern' sections.Teams were drawn against a team from the same section.Date Fixture Aug 29 Preston North End 4-0 Mansfield Town Aug 29 Blackburn Rovers 3-2 Doncaster Rovers Aug 29 Stoke City 0-0 Blackpool (5-4 pens.) Aug 29 Stevenage 3-3 Portsmouth (1-3 pens.) Sep 4 Burton Albion 1-1 Accrington Stanley (4-2 pens.) Sep 4 Middlesbrough 4-3 Shrewsbury Town Sep 5 Derby County 0-0 Barrow (3-2 pens.) Sep 5 Plymouth Argyle 3-2 Queens Park Rangers Sep 5 Crawley Town 1-3 Millwall Sep 5 Gillingham 1-0 Southend United Sep 5 Bristol City 2-0 Exeter City Sep 5 Walsall 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday (2-4 pens.) Sep 5 Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Harrogate Town (7-8 pens.) Sep 5 Crewe Alexandra 1-2 Lincoln City Sep 5 Huddersfield Town 0-1 Rochdale Sep 5 Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Bradford City Sep 5 Fleetwood Town 3-2 Wigan Athletic Sep 5 Grimsby Town 1-1 Morecambe (3-4 pens.) Sep 5 Scunthorpe United 1-2 Port Vale Sep 5 Sunderland 0-0 Hull City (4-5 pens.) Sep 5 Salford City 1-1 Rotherham United (4-2 pens.) Sep 5 Barnsley 1-0 Nottingham Forest Sep 5 Oldham Athletic 3-0 Carlisle United Sep 5 Swindon Town 1-3 Charlton Athletic Sep 5 Forest Green Rovers 1-2 Leyton Orient Sep 5 Milton Keynes Dons 0-1 Coventry City Sep 5 Peterborough United 0-1 Cheltenham Town Sep 5 Northampton Town 3-0 Cardiff City Sep 5 Luton Town 3-1 Norwich City Sep 5 Birmingham City 0-1 Cambridge United Sep 5 Newport County 2-0 Swansea City Sep 5 Oxford United 1-1 Wimbledon (4-3 pens.) Sep 5 Reading 3-1 Colchester United Sep 5 Ipswich Town 3-0 Bristol Rovers Sep 6 Brentford 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers (4-2 pens.) Carabao Cup 2020-21 on TVIn the United Kingdom, the Carabao Cup will be broadcast and live-streamed on Sky Sports.In the United States, the competition will be shown on ESPN channels. Carabao Cup 2020-21 rulesAs was the case in 2019-20, extra-time will be abandoned for all rounds except for the final, with ties advancing straight to penalties in the event that the score is a draw at the end of regular time .This was introduced in order to limit issues of "additional fatigue", as Carabao Cup fixtures typically take place in the middle of the week.The ABBA penalty system trial was also eliminated, with the format for penalty shoot-outs now reverting to the standard ABAB penalty-taker order.Seeding has also been removed from the first two rounds.Video assistant refereeing (VAR) will continue to be in use in fixtures played at Premier League grounds.Additionally,this will mark the first instance in which the winnerwill also qualify for the play-offs of the brand-newEuropa Conference League, instead of thesecond qualifying round of the Europa League.All ties will be played as single legs. Will away goals count in the Carabao Cup semi-finals?If both teams are level after the end of full-time during the second leg of either of the semi-final ties, the game will go directly toa penalty shoot-out with a no away goals rule implemented - a rule which began in 2018-19.Previously, theaway-goal rule was used in the semi-final stage in the same manner as it is in the Champions League knockout rounds. If, for instance, the away team scored a goal in the first leg that ended in a 1-1 draw, with the second leg ending 0-0, then that team would have progressed to the final courtesy of the away-goals rule.Now, no such rule will be considered and second-leg stalemates will be decided ultimately by a penalty shoot-out. Why is the League Cup called the Carabao Cup?Until 2016, the tournament was named the English Football League Cup (EFL Cup) instead of the League Cup,following the rebranding of the Football League to the English Football League.Officially, the EFL Cup is known as the Carabao Cup due to the energy drink being the tournament's official sponsors.Prior to Carabao'ssponsorship of the tournament starting from 2017, the competition was called the EFL Cup (2016-17), the Capital One Cup (2012-13 to 2015-16), the Carling Cup (sponsored by Molson Coors from 2003-04 to2011-12), the Worthington Cup (sponsored by Worthington's from 1998-99 to 2002-03), and the Coca-Cola Cup (from 1992-93 to 1997-98). Carabao & League Cup past winners Getty https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/GOAL/6/df/liverpool-carling-cup-2012_3u5bo531fahe12w4agsol0c6j.png?t=959309685&w=500&quality=80
Liverpool have won the Carabao Cup the most times, winning their eighth in 2012 when they defeated Cardiff City on penalties. Behind them are Man City, who lifted their seventh Carabao Cup in 2020 when they beat Aston Villa through penalty shootout.Manchester United,Aston Villa and Chelsea have all won the Carabao Cup five times each.Tottenham and Nottingham Forest have both won the competition four times apiece.Only lists teams who have won the competition the most times.

The 2020-21 edition of theCarabao Cup began in August, withChampionship, League One and League Two sides entering the competition. Manchester City lifted their seventhCarabao Cup and third title in a row after beating Aston Villa in last season's final back in March. Goal has your complete guide, including participating teams, full draw information, fixture schedules and results.Carabao Cup formatCarabao Cup finalCarabao Cup semi-finalsCarabao Cup quarter-finalsCarabao Cup fourth roundCarabao Cup third roundCarabao Cup second roundCarabao Cup first roundCarabao Cup on TVCarabao Cup rulesAway goalsWhy is the League Cup called the Carabao Cup?Past winners CarabaoCup 2020-21formatAll 92 clubs competingin the Premier League and the English Football League enter the 2020-21 CarabaoCup, with participation distributed across the divisions.The competition will be played over seven rounds, with single-leg ties throughout.The previous two-legged tie for the semi-final was scrapped in favour of one.In round one, the draw was split into northern and southern clubs with 22 Championship sides and all League One and League Two clubs entering. Carabao Cup 2020-21 finalThe Carabao Cup 2020-21 final will be played at Wembley Stadium on Sunday April 25, 2021. It will kick off at 4pm GMT (11am ET)It had originally been scheduled for February 28, 2021, but the EFL made the decision to rearrange the date in order to increase the chances of supporters being able to attend.A statement released in December confirmed the news, saying: "It is the objective of the League to stage the final with as many supporters in attendance as possible and the decision has therefore been taken to move the final from its original date of SundayFebruary 28, 2021 to later in the year."The number of fans permitted will be dependent on government guidance in place at the time and it is hoped that moving the date to later in the year will give clubs and their fans the best opportunity to attend in person."Date Fixture Apr 25 Winner of semi-final 1 vs Winner of semi-final 2 Carabao Cup 2020-21 semi-finalsThe Carabao Cup 2020-21 semi-finals will be played from January 4, 2021, with the games being played over one leg rather than two to help with fixture congestion.Manchester United will host rivals Manchester City at Old Trafford in a huge derby encounter while Tottenham will host Championship outfit Brentford in north London.Date Fixture Jan 4(TBC) Manchester United vs Manchester City Jan 4 (TBC) Tottenham vs Brentford Carabao Cup 2020-21 quarter-finalsThe quarter-final ties will be played the week startingDecember 21.Manchester City compounded Mikel Arteta's woes by inflicting a 4-1 defeat on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, closing off a potential avenue for redemption for the Gunners boss.They were to be joined in the final four by local rivals Manchester United, who scored two late goals to see of Everton.Championship promotion contenders Brentford sprung a surprise by beating Newcastle United.Tottenham also faced Championship opposition in the form of Stoke City, beating them 3-1 at the bet365 Stadium.Date Fixture Dec 22 Brentford 1-0 Newcastle United Dec 22 Arsenal 1-4 Manchester City Dec 23 Stoke City 1-3 Tottenham Dec 23 Everton 0-2 Manchester United Carabao Cup 2020-21 fourth roundThe fourth round ties were played the week commencing September 28.Tottenham advanced to the quarter-finals over Chelsea through penalty shootout, while Liverpool were outdone by Arsenal in the same manner.Man Utd beat Brighton 3-0 to progress, while Man City registered victory against Burnley by the same scoreline.Date Fixture Sep 29 Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea (5-4 pens.) Sep 30 Newport County 1-1 Newcastle United (4-5 pens.) Sep 30 Burnley 0-3 Manchester City Sep 30 Everton 4-1 West Ham Sep 30 Brighton 0-3 Manchester United Oct 1 Brentford 3-0 Fulham Oct 1 Aston Villa 0-1 Stoke City Oct 1 Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal (4-5 pens.) Carabao Cup 2020-21 third roundThe likes of Arsenal,Chelsea,Leicester City,Liverpool,Manchester City,Manchester UnitedandTottenham Hotspur were automatically registered forthe third round due to their participation in European competitions.Leyton Orient's match against Tottenham was called off due to the home side announcing positive Covid-19 cases , with Spurs handed a bye for the fourth round.The draw was conducted on September 6, and was played the week commencing September 21.Date Fixture Sep 22 Leyon Orient A-A Tottenham (Spurs handed bye) Sep 22 Newport County 3-1 Watford Sep 22 West Brom 2-2 Brentford (4-5 pens.) Sep 22 West Ham 5-1 Hull City Sep 22 Luton Town 0-3 Man Utd Sep 23 Preston North End 0-2 Brighton Sep 23 Chelsea 6-0 Barnlsey Sep 23 Fleetwood Town 2-5 Everton Sep 23 Fulham 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday Sep 23 Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal Sep 23 Millwall 0-2 Burnley Sep 23 Morecambe 0-7 Newcastle United Sep 23 Stoke City 1-0 Gillingham Sep 24 Bristol City 0-3 Aston Villa Sep 24 Lincoln City 2-7 Liverpool Sep 24 Manchester City 2-1 Bournemouth Carabao Cup 2020-21second roundFifty teams were involved in round two of the Carabao Cup, including Premier League clubs that are not participating in European competition.Like previous years, the draw was again split into 'northern' and 'southern' sections. The draw for the second round was made on September 6.Date Fixture Sep 15 Bournemouth 0-0 Crystal Palace (pens. 11-10) Sep 15 Bradford City 0-5 Lincoln City Sep 15 Burton Albion 1-3 Aston Villa Sep 15 Derby County 1-2 Preston North End Sep 15 Fleetwood Town 2-1 Port Vale Sep 15 Gillingham 1-1 Coventry City (5-4 pens.) Sep 15 Leyton Orient 3-2 Plymouth Argyle Sep 15 Middlesbrough 0-2 Barnsley Sep 15 Millwall 3-1 Cheltenham Town Sep 15 Morecambe 1-0 Oldham Athletic Sep 15 Newcastle United 1-0 Blackburn Rovers Sep 15 Newport County 1-0 Cambridge United Sep 15 Oxford United 1-1 Watford (0-3 pens.) Sep 15 Reading 0-1 Luton Town Sep 15 Rochdale 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday Sep 15 West Ham United 3-0 Charlton Athletic Sep 16 Bristol City 4-0 Northampton Town Sep 16 Everton 3-0 Salford City Sep 16 Ipswich Town 0-1 Fulham Sep 16 Leeds United 1-1 Hull City (8-9 pens.) Sep 16 Southampton 0-2 Brentford Sep 16 West Brom 3-0 Harrogate Town Sep 17 Brighton 4-0 Portsmouth Sep 17 Burnley 1-1 Sheffield United (5-4 pens.) Sep 17 Wolves 0-1 Stoke Carabao Cup 2020-21 first roundSeventy clubs participated in the first round, with 24 teams from League Two (tier four), 24 from League One (tier three), and 22 from the Championship (tier two).The draw was divided between 'northern' and 'southern' sections.Teams were drawn against a team from the same section.Date Fixture Aug 29 Preston North End 4-0 Mansfield Town Aug 29 Blackburn Rovers 3-2 Doncaster Rovers Aug 29 Stoke City 0-0 Blackpool (5-4 pens.) Aug 29 Stevenage 3-3 Portsmouth (1-3 pens.) Sep 4 Burton Albion 1-1 Accrington Stanley (4-2 pens.) Sep 4 Middlesbrough 4-3 Shrewsbury Town Sep 5 Derby County 0-0 Barrow (3-2 pens.) Sep 5 Plymouth Argyle 3-2 Queens Park Rangers Sep 5 Crawley Town 1-3 Millwall Sep 5 Gillingham 1-0 Southend United Sep 5 Bristol City 2-0 Exeter City Sep 5 Walsall 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday (2-4 pens.) Sep 5 Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Harrogate Town (7-8 pens.) Sep 5 Crewe Alexandra 1-2 Lincoln City Sep 5 Huddersfield Town 0-1 Rochdale Sep 5 Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Bradford City Sep 5 Fleetwood Town 3-2 Wigan Athletic Sep 5 Grimsby Town 1-1 Morecambe (3-4 pens.) Sep 5 Scunthorpe United 1-2 Port Vale Sep 5 Sunderland 0-0 Hull City (4-5 pens.) Sep 5 Salford City 1-1 Rotherham United (4-2 pens.) Sep 5 Barnsley 1-0 Nottingham Forest Sep 5 Oldham Athletic 3-0 Carlisle United Sep 5 Swindon Town 1-3 Charlton Athletic Sep 5 Forest Green Rovers 1-2 Leyton Orient Sep 5 Milton Keynes Dons 0-1 Coventry City Sep 5 Peterborough United 0-1 Cheltenham Town Sep 5 Northampton Town 3-0 Cardiff City Sep 5 Luton Town 3-1 Norwich City Sep 5 Birmingham City 0-1 Cambridge United Sep 5 Newport County 2-0 Swansea City Sep 5 Oxford United 1-1 Wimbledon (4-3 pens.) Sep 5 Reading 3-1 Colchester United Sep 5 Ipswich Town 3-0 Bristol Rovers Sep 6 Brentford 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers (4-2 pens.) Carabao Cup 2020-21 on TVIn the United Kingdom, the Carabao Cup will be broadcast and live-streamed on Sky Sports.In the United States, the competition will be shown on ESPN channels. Carabao Cup 2020-21 rulesAs was the case in 2019-20, extra-time will be abandoned for all rounds except for the final, with ties advancing straight to penalties in the event that the score is a draw at the end of regular time .This was introduced in order to limit issues of "additional fatigue", as Carabao Cup fixtures typically take place in the middle of the week.The ABBA penalty system trial was also eliminated, with the format for penalty shoot-outs now reverting to the standard ABAB penalty-taker order.Seeding has also been removed from the first two rounds.Video assistant refereeing (VAR) will continue to be in use in fixtures played at Premier League grounds.Additionally,this will mark the first instance in which the winnerwill also qualify for the play-offs of the brand-newEuropa Conference League, instead of thesecond qualifying round of the Europa League.All ties will be played as single legs. Will away goals count in the Carabao Cup semi-finals?If both teams are level after the end of full-time during the second leg of either of the semi-final ties, the game will go directly toa penalty shoot-out with a no away goals rule implemented - a rule which began in 2018-19.Previously, theaway-goal rule was used in the semi-final stage in the same manner as it is in the Champions League knockout rounds. If, for instance, the away team scored a goal in the first leg that ended in a 1-1 draw, with the second leg ending 0-0, then that team would have progressed to the final courtesy of the away-goals rule.Now, no such rule will be considered and second-leg stalemates will be decided ultimately by a penalty shoot-out. Why is the League Cup called the Carabao Cup?Until 2016, the tournament was named the English Football League Cup (EFL Cup) instead of the League Cup,following the rebranding of the Football League to the English Football League.Officially, the EFL Cup is known as the Carabao Cup due to the energy drink being the tournament's official sponsors.Prior to Carabao'ssponsorship of the tournament starting from 2017, the competition was called the EFL Cup (2016-17), the Capital One Cup (2012-13 to 2015-16), the Carling Cup (sponsored by Molson Coors from 2003-04 to2011-12), the Worthington Cup (sponsored by Worthington's from 1998-99 to 2002-03), and the Coca-Cola Cup (from 1992-93 to 1997-98). Carabao & League Cup past winners Getty https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/GOAL/6/df/liverpool-carling-cup-2012_3u5bo531fahe12w4agsol0c6j.png?t=959309685&w=500&quality=80
Liverpool have won the Carabao Cup the most times, winning their eighth in 2012 when they defeated Cardiff City on penalties. Behind them are Man City, who lifted their seventh Carabao Cup in 2020 when they beat Aston Villa through penalty shootout.Manchester United,Aston Villa and Chelsea have all won the Carabao Cup five times each.Tottenham and Nottingham Forest have both won the competition four times apiece.Only lists teams who have won the competition the most times.

K-pop, K-drama, K-lit (or "K-literature" if you want to be decent), K-beauty... things that start with K are pretty popular these days[.]() But can any of them really compare with K League?
Contents:

• Why watch
• 2020 season recap
• The off-season
  • AFC Champions League
  • Club World Cup
  • Transfers
• Matchday 1
• How to follow

Why watch

Here comes the marketing spiel. If you follow K League, you'll get throw-ins like THIS, headers like THIS, and epic knee-slides like THIS. Are you not entertained?
The best practical reason for following it is that you can get live football at a time of day when there's not much other football on - afternoons in East Asia, mornings in UK and Europe, and evenings or nights in the Americas. It's also a summer league, so you'll never have to go without club football from ~June-August again.
The highly scientific and not-at-all-questionable IFFHS rankings also has K League as the best league in Asia by quite some bit, and the 20th best league in the world. If the 20th best league sounds like something you might be interested in, carry on reading. If not, also carry on reading.

2020 season recap

I started writing a separate 2020 season recap, but I didn't get past a gif of Jesse Pinkman shouting "He can't keep getting away with it!", where in this case "he" is Jeonbuk and "it" is winning the league. However, I've now some time to compose myself, so here goes my mini summary.
First some "best of" videos

• [Best backheel]()
• [Best volley]()
• Best hug https://www.instagram.com/p/CASZ4EmBbbV/?igshid=16dfhmn1ubvdv
• Best assault https://www.instagram.com/p/CASYdCGBX0y/?igshid=11omtuzrsli8a

The reason I wanted to scream like Jesse is that Jeonbuk just weren't that good - they regularly dropped points to teams in the lower half of the table, scraped wins, and played most of the season without a competent striker. This feeling that Jeonbuk were a bit pants was verified when Jeonbuk were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage for the first time in ages. So why couldn't anyone take advantage of that?
The answer lies in Ulsan. Ulsan lost out on the 2019 league title on the tiebreaker of a single goal scored, and there was real determination to get it done in 2020. In 2020 Ulsan were great. They spent the majority of the season at the top of the table, were crowned champions of Asia in an unbeaten run, and only lost to two teams all year. Unfortunately, one of those teams was Jeonbuk, and they lost to them three times in the league. If Ulsan could have just drawn ONCE, they would have won their first league title since 2005. But they didn't. They came runner-up, trailing Jeonbuk by 3 points. To rub salt into the wound, they also lost to Jeonbuk in the FA Cup final the week after the league finished.
As for everyone else, in order of finishing:

• Pohang were good but not good enough. They did score the most goals out of everyone though.
• Sangju Sangmu got their highest finish ever, and could have got Champions League football for 2021 if it weren't for them technically disbanding at the end of 2020 and reforming anew as Gimcheon Sangmu.
• Daegu sneaked into a Champions League spot, in what will be their second appearance following their 2019 debut.
• Gwangju exceeded all expectations
• Gangwon didn't meet expectations, but they did the double over Jeonbuk which makes them absolute heroes in my book.
• Suwon Bluewings were terrible until they sacked their moron of a manager, and when the replacement was finally hired they looked quite good.
• FC Seoul went through one manager and two or three caretakers and looked rubbish under all of them.
• Seongnam almost threw it away in the final run of games but held on and deservedly stayed up for another year.
• Incheon were considered relegated by most halfway through the season - because they hadn't even won a single game by then - so the fact that they weren't come the end of the season is a miracle.
• Busan were kind of meh all season, and when relegation looked possible their manager simply gave up and resigned instead of sticking around to fight it out. They got relegated.

From K League 2 Jeju bounce back after just one year, possibly thanks to promotion specialist Nam Ki-il, and Suwon FC won promotion with literally the last kick of the season to ensure we'll see a Suwon Derby again in 2021.
Also since it was the "big thing" in 2020, I'll give a small mention to coronavirus. Due to an abundance of caution, crowds were absent for most of the season, but not a single positive case among K League 1 clubs occured, which is just incredible.

The off-season

AFC Champions League

After the domestic season was finished, there was the small matter of almost an entire Champions League campaign to play in Qatar. There were 4 teams representing K League.
FC Seoul arrived at the competition with yet another caretaker manager, this time it was a scout from their backroom staff because they couldn't find anyone else with the correct coaching license that the AFC requires. They continued their domestic form and went home early, finishing 3rd in their group.
Jeonbuk also finished 3rd in their group. In their defence they did have a lot of their usual starting XI missing, but the Jeonbuk of yesteryear would have still managed. They just weren't very good in 2020.
Suwon Bluewings were perhaps the darkest horse at the tournament, and despite turning up with an all-Korean squad and without their captain, showed a will to scrap for every single ball and a self-confidence that was quite terrifying. They played in what was my personal favourite game of the tournament, a win over the then-reigning J.League champions Yokohama FM which included a lob from the halfway line. Unfortunately they had to play the majority of their next game with 10 men. They still pushed it to penalties, but didn't get lucky. If you count a loss on penalties as a draw, they still left Qatar unbeaten.
Ulsan... well they won it. Well done them. Their manager headed into the competition knowing he wouldn't have a job afterwards regardless of outcome, but they still bossed it. They lifted the trophy undefeated for only the second time in the competition's history. The first team that did it was themselves, in 2012.

Club World Cup

During Ulsan's rebuild, they had to jet off to Qatar again to fight for the title of champions of the universe. Literally half of the players who played in the Champions League final in December did not make the return trip to Qatar, either due to injury or having left the club, and the manager and 5 players were making their debut for the club. Expectations were not high, and they met those expectations by losing to Tigres and Al-Duhail. However, the trip wasn't totally pointless, as they managed to score this ^offside [goal that some said was Puskas-worthy]().

Transfers

The transfer window followed the familiar pattern of the previous season's best talent leaving for richer (but not necessarily better) leagues abroad, and an influx of Eastern Europeans with exotic names.
One notable pair of transfers is Seongnam's signing of forwards Park Yong-ji and Sergiu Bus. Will they be any good? Who knows. But the prospect of Park and Bus playing up front is the reddit comedian's wet dream.
Considering they came within touching distance of the league 2 seasons in a row and were just crowned champions of Asia, Ulsan are undergoing a massive rebuild. The new coach has minimal club coaching experience, and hasn't managed for over three years, but is apparently getting rid of anyone over the age of 30. Among the departures, captain Shin Jin-ho went to their East Coast Derby rivals Pohang, but the biggest shock is their striker Junior, who just had the most prolific season in K League history, being let go on a free to China.
I won't go over the other couple of hundred transfers that happened, but here's a list of all the foreigners in K League this season so that you can see if you recognise any journeymen:

Club				AFC slot
Daegu	🇧🇷Cesinha	🇧🇷Edgar		🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon	🇷🇸Siladi	🇯🇵Ishida		🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Gwangju	🇧🇷Felipe
Incheon	🇧🇷Negueba	🇲🇪Mugosa	🇨🇷Aguilar	🇦🇺Delbridge
Jeju				🇺🇿Kenzhaboev
Jeonbuk	🇧🇷Gustavo	🇬🇲Barrow	🇷🇺/🇩🇪Iljutcenko	🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang	🇨🇴Palacios			🇦🇺Grant
Seongnam	🇦🇹Windbichler	🇷🇸Mulic	🇷🇴Bus	🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul	🇷🇸Palocevic	🇪🇦Osmar		🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon FC	🇧🇷Murilo	🇿🇦Veldwijk
Suwon Bluewings	🇮🇹Dumitru	🇷🇸Deric	🇨🇦Henry	🇦🇺Antonis
Ulsan	🇦🇹Hinterseer	🇳🇱Bulthuis		🇦🇺Davidson

Matchday 1

The season kicks off on Saturday, with reigning champions Jeonbuk hosting FC Seoul. The fixture is known as "the legendary match" (it's purely a Korean word play, it's not really that legendary), and FC Seoul haven't won this tie since 2017. FC Seoul have however had probably the most promising transfer window of anyone this winter, so putting an end to this record wouldn't be that shocking.
The times are admittedly not that convenient for UK viewers, but after the clocks change and the kick-off times shift to later in the day to avoid the daytime heat, you can still have a long lie-in and catch the whole match.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Saturday 27th Feb

• 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT)
  • Jeonbuk vs FC Seoul
• 16:30 local time (07:30 GMT)
  • Daegu vs Suwon FC

Sunday 28th Feb

• 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT)
  • Pohang vs Incheon
• 16:30 local time (07:30 GMT)
  • Suwon Bluewings vs Gwangju

Monday 1st Mar

• 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT)
  • Ulsan vs Gangwon
• 16:30 local time (07:30 GMT)
  • Seongnam vs Jeju

How to follow

There is only one place ^{on reddit} to follow all the K League happenings - KLeague. Over the past year, we've grown by about 350 subscribers over 45% (wow!) and now have image flairs that work across old, new, and mobile reddit. It's your go-to place to ask "stupid" questions and seek terrible advice on who to "root for". If you check the subreddit wiki you'll find plenty of info on how to get into it and how to watch the action live or highlights.
There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include

• Korean NT goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu returning to Japan after playing for Ulsan for just 6 months and taking a throw-in
• Korea's other main goalkeeper Cho Hyeon-woo transferring to Ulsan from Daegu
• Lee Chung-yong returning to the K League after a long spell in Europe, joining Ulsan
• MLS champion with Seattle Sounders Kim Kee-hee joining Ulsan. Ulsan really going for it here
• The transfer with the highest publicly-disclosed transfer fee was last season's highest-paid player Ricardo Lopes going to Shanghai SIPG in China for about £5 million
• Jeonbuk got their main transfer business done early, signing last year's MVP at Ulsan, Kim Bo-kyung

Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:

Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back

There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but none that would interest most people reading this.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on kleague if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
I won't share less-legal ways to watch here, but if you head over to kleague and look at recent posts you might find something won't find anything so don't even think about it buddy.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.

Delayed by coronavirus by 10 weeks, Asia's oldest professional league is finally here
Contents:

• Why should you care?
• The impact of coronavirus
• How do I get into it?
• Matchday 1
• The off-season
• Watching live
• Watching highlights
• Choosing a team

Why should you care?

The most obvious reason is that it's being played at all and will probably be the highest-quality football on offer in the world right now.
Longer-term, when the football calendar returns to normal, following the K League means you'll never have to go without club football from ~June-August again, as the K League plays from ~February–November. When everyone in the DD is lamenting how empty their lives are now that the EPL has finished, you can just enjoy watching the K League in full swing every weekend.
I could wax lyrical about how amazing the K League is, but really those will be the best reasons for most people. Aside from that, it does generally provide very good entertainment. Last season we saw:

• the title race come down to the last game of the season, and was decided on a tiebreaker by a single goal scored
• related to the above, Ulsan failing to secure the title by losing to their biggest rivals Pohang Steelers when they only needed a draw
• the previous season's runners-up being relegated
• K League stalwarts Jeju United being relegated for the first time ever
• Gangwon staging a 5-goal comeback in the final 25 mins of a game against Pohang in which they were 4-0 down

The impact of coronavirus

The K League season was postponed in late February, 5 days before it was meant to kick off. Training was allowed to continue, although friendlies against other teams were banned. South Korea's response to the virus has widely been considered "very good", and so talks took place in April about resuming the season soon after friendlies were allowed again.
Clubs initially ruled out opening behind closed doors due to their reliance on gate receipts for their finances, but I guess they changed their minds on that, as there will be no crowd at the beginning with no date set for opening the doors. However, given that South Korea held a general election with their highest ever voter turnout a few weeks ago, with no apparent subsequent impact on coronavirus numbers, I'm hopeful there will be a crowd in the near future. New cases in South Korea have been about 10 per day for the past few weeks, and a majority of those have been arrivals from abroad. Social distancing is set to be relaxed from Wednesday, moving into a new phase of "everyday life quarantine", with public facilities and schools ready to reopen.
The K League 1 season is normally 38 games, but will be reduced to 27 games for this year - each of the 12 teams will play each other twice, and then after round 22 the table will "split" for the final 5 games. A league champion will only be crowned if at least 22 games are played.
If any player or coach tests positive, their team will not play for at least 2 weeks. No staff or players connected with K League clubs were reported as testing positive during the outbreak, and last week all players, coaches, and support staff in K League 1 & K League 2 were tested prior to the start of the season, all testing negative.
One interesting side-effect of the delay is that the K League will be the first to implement the new 2020-2021 IFAB rules, which bring a bit more common sense into penalising a goalkeeper for coming off their line for a penalty, and only penalise an accidental handball from the attacker if it happens immediately before a goal.

How do I get into it?

You could just start watching, but you might want to know a bit more about what you're watching. There are only a handful of English-language websites that cover the K League. Probably the most comprehensive overview can be found on this webpage, which basically serves as an index for a lot more content, but you can pick and choose what you want to read. If you want something a bit more digestable, I've been making OC on reddit over the past year, and if you read some of it, you'd be as well-informed as most who watch it:
Guide to 2019 K League - perhaps a bit wordy, but could be worth a skim - not much changes in the space of a year anyway.
Korean derbies - soccer really loves a derby. Here I tried to cover the main ones within the top flight with a bit of history, some stories, and significant matches.
Season in review: 2019 K League - my recap of the season past. It was actually pretty exciting, with the title race going to the final day and decided on a single goal scored.
I've also made this map so that you can get an idea of where each club is geographically. Stadium pictures are included.

Matchday 1

There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Friday 8th May 19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Jeonbuk vs Suwon
Saturday 9th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Ulsan vs Sangju Sangmu
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Incheon vs Daegu
19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Gwangju vs Seongnam
Sunday 10th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Pohang vs Busan
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Gangwon vs FC Seoul

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include

• Korean NT goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu returning to Japan after playing for Ulsan for just 6 months and taking a throw-in
• Korea's other main goalkeeper Cho Hyeon-woo transferring to Ulsan from Daegu
• Lee Chung-yong returning to the K League after a long spell in Europe, joining Ulsan
• MLS champion with Seattle Sounders Kim Kee-hee joining Ulsan. Ulsan really going for it here
• The transfer with the highest publicly-disclosed transfer fee was last season's highest-paid player Ricardo Lopes going to Shanghai SIPG in China for about £5 million
• Jeonbuk got their main transfer business done early, signing last year's MVP at Ulsan, Kim Bo-kyung

Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:

Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back

There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but none that would interest most people reading this.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on kleague if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
I won't share less-legal ways to watch here, but if you head over to kleague and look at recent posts you might find something won't find anything so don't even think about it buddy.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
If you want to support your countrymen, here's a list of all foreigners playing in K League 1. There's no 🇺🇸Americans this year (Mix Diskerud was on loan at Ulsan last year, but he's returned to Man City), but Johnsen who plays for Ulsan was born and grew up in the US. 🇵🇹Portuguese Jose Morais is manager of Jeonbuk, formerly assistant manager to Mourinho.

Club				AFC slot
Busan	🇧🇷Vintecinco	🇧🇷Rômulo	🇧🇷Reis	🇺🇿Tursunov
Daegu	🇧🇷Césinha	🇧🇷Edgar	🇲🇪Dejan	🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon				🇯🇵Nakazato
Gwangju	🇧🇷Felipe	🇧🇷Willyan	🇨🇷Ureña	🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Incheon	🇧🇦Bunoza	🇲🇪Mugosa	🇳🇬Kehinde	🇦🇺Mahazi
Jeonbuk	🇧🇷Murilo	🇿🇦Veldwijk		🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang	🇨🇴Palacios	🇷🇺Iljutcenko	🇷🇸Palocevic	🇦🇺O'Neill
Seongnam	🇭🇷Jovanovic	🇭🇷Kis		🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul	🇧🇷Adriano	🇪🇦Osmar	🇷🇸Pesic	🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon	🇦🇺Antonis	🇧🇦Krpic	🇨🇦Henry	🇦🇺Taggart
Ulsan	🇧🇷Junior	🇳🇱Bulthuis	🇳🇴Johnsen	🇦🇺Davidson

There's a lack of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿English representation this year, but if you're looking for some familarity, there's a handful of South Koreans who have played in the English pyramid:

• Arsenal LEGEND Park Chu-young (now with FC Seoul)
• Middlesbrough LEGEND Lee Dong-gook (now with Jeonbuk) who is now 41
• Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace legend Lee Chung-yong (now with Ulsan)
• Cardiff and Wigan Athletic legend Kim Bo-kyung (now with Jeonbuk)
• QPR legend Yoon Suk-young (now with Busan)

Other Koreans who had a stint in the 'top 5 leagues' include Park Joo-ho (Ulsan), Hong Jeong-ho, Kim Jin-su (both with Jeonbuk now), Yun Jun-tae (now with FC Seoul), and Kim Kyung-joong (now with Gangwon).
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.

Delayed by coronavirus by 10 weeks, Asia's oldest professional league is finally here
Contents:

• The impact of coronavirus
• How do I get into it?
• Matchday 1
• The off-season
• Watching live
• Watching highlights
• Choosing a team

The impact of coronavirus

The K League season was postponed in late February, 5 days before it was meant to kick off. Training was allowed to continue, although friendlies against other teams were banned. South Korea's response to the virus has widely been considered "very good", and so talks took place in April about resuming the season soon after friendlies were allowed again.
Clubs initially ruled out opening behind closed doors due to their reliance on gate receipts for their finances, but I guess they changed their minds on that, as there will be no crowd at the beginning with no date set for opening the doors. However, given that South Korea held a general election with their highest ever voter turnout a few weeks ago, with no apparent subsequent impact on coronavirus numbers, I'm hopeful there will be a crowd in the near future. New cases in South Korea have been about 10 per day for the past few weeks, and a majority of those have been arrivals from abroad. Social distancing is set to be relaxed from Wednesday, moving into a new phase of "everyday life quarantine", with public facilities and schools ready to reopen.
The K League 1 season is normally 38 games, but will be reduced to 27 games for this year - each of the 12 teams will play each other twice, and then after round 22 the table will "split" for the final 5 games. A league champion will only be crowned if at least 22 games are played.
If any player or coach tests positive, their team will not play for at least 2 weeks. No staff or players connected with K League clubs were reported as testing positive during the outbreak, and last week all players, coaches, and support staff in K League 1 & K League 2 were tested prior to the start of the season, all testing negative.
One interesting side-effect of the delay is that the K League will be the first to implement the new 2020-2021 IFAB rules, which bring a bit more common sense into penalising a goalkeeper for coming off their line for a penalty, and only penalise an accidental handball from the attacker if it happens immediately before a goal.

How do I get into it?

You could just start watching, but you might want to know a bit more about what you're watching. There are only a handful of English-language websites that cover the K League. Probably the most comprehensive overview can be found on this webpage, which basically serves as an index for a lot more content, but you can pick and choose what you want to read. If you want something a bit more digestable, I've been making OC on reddit over the past year, and if you read some of it, you'd be as well-informed as most who watch it:
Guide to 2019 K League - perhaps a bit wordy, but could be worth a skim - not much changes in the space of a year anyway.
Korean derbies - reddit really loves a derby. Here I tried to cover the main ones within the top flight with a bit of history, some stories, and significant matches.
Season in review: 2019 K League - my recap of the season past. It was actually pretty exciting, with the title race going to the final day and decided on a single goal scored.
I've also made this map so that you can get an idea of where each club is geographically. Stadium pictures are included.

Matchday 1

There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Friday 8th May 19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Jeonbuk vs Suwon
Saturday 9th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Ulsan vs Sangju Sangmu
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Incheon vs Daegu
19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Gwangju vs Seongnam
Sunday 10th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Pohang vs Busan
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Gangwon vs FC Seoul

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include

• Korean NT goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu returning to Japan after playing for Ulsan for just 6 months and taking a throw-in
• Korea's other main goalkeeper Cho Hyeon-woo transferring to Ulsan from Daegu
• Lee Chung-yong returning to the K League after a long spell in Europe, joining Ulsan
• MLS champion with Seattle Sounders Kim Kee-hee joining Ulsan. Ulsan really going for it here
• The transfer with the highest publicly-disclosed transfer fee was last season's highest-paid player Ricardo Lopes going to Shanghai SIPG in China for about £5 million
• Jeonbuk got their main transfer business done early, signing last year's MVP at Ulsan, Kim Bo-kyung

Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:

Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back

There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but many were not that interesting.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on the sub if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
In less-legal ways to watch, if you look at old posts on the sub you might find something.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
If you want to support your countrymen, here's a list of all foreigners playing in K League 1. There's no 🇺🇸Americans this year (Mix Diskerud was on loan at Ulsan last year, but he's returned to Man City), but Johnsen who plays for Ulsan was born and grew up in the US. 🇵🇹Portuguese Jose Morais is manager of Jeonbuk, formerly assistant manager to Mourinho.

Club				AFC slot
Busan	🇧🇷Vintecinco	🇧🇷Rômulo	🇧🇷Reis	🇺🇿Tursunov
Daegu	🇧🇷Césinha	🇧🇷Edgar	🇲🇪Dejan	🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon				🇯🇵Nakazato
Gwangju	🇧🇷Felipe	🇧🇷Willyan	🇨🇷Ureña	🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Incheon	🇧🇦Bunoza	🇲🇪Mugosa	🇳🇬Kehinde	🇦🇺Mahazi
Jeonbuk	🇧🇷Murilo	🇿🇦Veldwijk		🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang	🇨🇴Palacios	🇷🇺Iljutcenko	🇷🇸Palocevic	🇦🇺O'Neill
Seongnam	🇭🇷Jovanovic	🇭🇷Kis		🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul	🇧🇷Adriano	🇪🇦Osmar	🇷🇸Pesic	🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon	🇦🇺Antonis	🇧🇦Krpic	🇨🇦Henry	🇦🇺Taggart
Ulsan	🇧🇷Junior	🇳🇱Bulthuis	🇳🇴Johnsen	🇦🇺Davidson

There's a lack of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿English representation this year, but if you're looking for some familarity, there's a handful of South Koreans who have played in the English pyramid:

• Arsenal LEGEND Park Chu-young (now with FC Seoul)
• Middlesbrough LEGEND Lee Dong-gook (now with Jeonbuk) who is now 41
• Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace legend Lee Chung-yong (now with Ulsan)
• Cardiff and Wigan Athletic legend Kim Bo-kyung (now with Jeonbuk)
• QPR legend Yoon Suk-young (now with Busan)

Other Koreans who had a stint in the 'top 5 leagues' include Park Joo-ho (Ulsan), Hong Jeong-ho, Kim Jin-su (both with Jeonbuk now), Yun Jun-tae (now with FC Seoul), and Kim Kyung-joong (now with Gangwon).
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.

Auto-Refreshing Transfer News Thread from Sky Sports
Auto-refreshing reddit comments link
21:58

OVER AND OUT!

OK that is it folks as far as tonight's Transfer Centre is concerned, however, fear not as we will be back again first thing tomorrow morning with more gossip and updates from across the globe...
21:51

INTER MAKE MODRIC MOVE

Inter Milan have made contact with Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric’s agents over a move, according to Sky in Italy.
The Croatian is believed to be open to the move to San Siro.
The Serie A club will move for Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal if they cannot sign Modric.
21:48

TRANSFER TALK: IS MOURINHO RIGHT TO BE FRUSTRATED?

The latest episode from the second series of our Transfer Talk podcast is here!
Host Tom White is joined by Sky Sports News reporter Dharmesh Sheth and Sky Sports football features writer Adam Bate to chat about the latest moves in the transfer market.
The panel discuss Jose Mourinho's frustrations with Manchester United's failure to recruit all the players he wants this summer.
21:46

ROWETT EXPECTS BUTLAND TO STAY

Stoke boss Gary Rowett is confident Jack Butland will stay and believes he can still fulfil his England ambitions at the club.
The Potters are yet to receive a serious offer for the 25-year-old after relegation from the Premier League last season.
Rowett said: "I expect him to stay, I hope he stays. I'm also pragmatic enough to know it's football and anything can happen in the last few days of the window.
"I imagine he would be the type of player who some teams would covet. I'm a realist but I hope he's still here.
"I can only react and answer what's in front of me. The answer is we haven't had an offer which the club feel is financially viable - or I don't think any strong offer yet.
"Jack has never made any real moves to want to leave and he's contracted to us and we're not even a week away from the first game."
21:45

VRSALJKO TO INTER, ARIAS TO ATLETI

Sime Vrsaljko has left Atletico Madrid to join Inter Milan on loan, with PSV right-back Santiago Arias replacing him at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Inter will have the option to turn Vrsaljko's loan into a permanent deal, according to Sky in Italy. They had been seeking a replacement for Joao Cancelo, who has joined Serie A rivals Juventus.
Vrsaljko's arrival at Inter could affect Matteo Darmian's future. The San Siro was touted as a possible destination for the want-away Manchester United full-back, but Inter's interest may now have cooled.
21:42

SMITH JOINS OXFORD ON LOAN

Oxford have signed striker Sam Smith from Reading on a season-long loan.
The 20-year-old could made his U’s debut in Saturday’s Sky Bet League One clash with Barnsley.
21:25

BRADFORD SIGN MELLOR

Bradford have signed former Blackpool defender Kelvin Mellor on a two-year-deal, the Sky Bet League One club have announced.
The 27-year-old right back had spent the last two seasons with the Seasiders.
21:03

ROWETT: CROUCH HAS ROLE TO PLAY

Stoke manager Gary Rowett insists Peter Crouch has a pivotal role to play in the club’s bid to earn an immediate return to the Premier League.
Crouch is understood to be interesting Burnley over a summer departure from the bet365 Stadium before the transfer deadline on August 9.
"Crouchy is certainly not one of those players we want to lose," Rowett told SSN at the EFL launch.
"He is the type of guy you want around the group. He has obviously played in the Championship before so he knows what it is about.
"He is a Premier League quality striker and he is such a different option to have. We all know of his aerial ability."
20:35

MACKINNON EAGER TO SEE HOW NEW BOYS FARE

Hamilton skipper Darian MacKinnon has warned the club's new players that they will need to learn fast in Scotland's top flight.
Six of Accies' nine summer signings will be playing in the Ladbrokes Premiership for the first time and Hamilton have not had the best of preparations for Saturday's season opener against Hearts.
MacKinnon said: "We have lost a few players and brought the new ones in so it will be interesting to see how they cope in the Premiership.
"They are all good players having seen them in games and training but it will be interesting to see if they can do it in the Premiership on a consistent basis because they have been playing kids' football.
"They will see when Hearts come to town on Saturday that you have not got time for six or seven touches, it's a touch and then bang. So we will soon see."
20:04

RODGERS: NO CHANGE TO RECRUITMENT POLICY

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers insists nothing has changed in the recruitment process at Parkhead.
At the media conference ahead of his side's Champions League clash in Rosenborg, Rodgers said, with regards to recruitment: "It is exactly the same as when I walked in.
"We will look to find players that fit the profile of the club and very importantly, the profile of how we play and once we have found the player, it will be over to the club to try to do a deal to bring the player in.
"So it is as simple as that. There is no confusion, there is no change."
19:39

ALISSON: I FEEL AT HOME ALREADY

Alisson has trained with his Liverpool team-mates for the first time and says he already "feels at home" at the club.
Liverpool paid a world-record fee for a goalkeeper in capturing the Brazil international from Roma for £65m this month and he has now joined Jurgen Klopp's men at their training base in France.
"It has been a great day which I had been looking forward to," Alisson told Liverpool's official website.
"I've had a good few resting days with my family but we all couldn't wait to get the new season under way soon. It's only my first day and I feel at home already."
19:03

MAN UTD'S CHIEF SCOUT LEAVES FOR ZENIT

Manchester United chief scout Javier Ribalta has left the club to join Zenit Saint Petersburg just 13 months after arriving at Old Trafford.
Ribalta, formerly head scout for Juventus, has agreed a deal to become Zenit's new sporting director until 2021.
During his five years with Juventus, Ribalta took a leading role in the signings of Paul Pogba, Paulo Dybala, Kingsley Coman, Dani Alves and Alvaro Morata.
18:31

TILT HANDS IN TRANSFER REQUEST

Blackpool defender Curtis Tilt has handed in a transfer request in the hope it will force through a move to Ipswich, according to Sky sources.
Ipswich are understood to have made an offer in the region of £700,000 for the 26-year-old centre back.
The Tangerines have not yet accepted the offer however.
And sources have told SSN they previously indicated they would let Tilt leave Bloomfield Road this summer.
18:18

LEEDS' SACKO LOANED TO LAS PALMAS

Leeds United forward Hadi Sacko has joined Las Palmas on loan until the end of the season.
The 24-year-old moved to Elland Road on loan two years ago from Sporting Lisbon, before making the move permanent last summer.
However, Sacko made just 18 appearances in all competition for Leeds last season, and they have now allowed him to join Segunda Division side Las Palmas.
They finished 19th in La Liga last season, and are now preparing for life in the second tier.
17:47

IPSWICH SIGN DONACIEN

Ipswich Town have signed defender Janoi Donacien on loan from Accrington Stanley.
The two clubs have agreed an undisclosed fee for the 24-year-old, and the move will become permanent once Donacien - who was born in St Lucia - receives a work permit.
Accrington say the fee for Donacian - who can play anywhere across the defence - will be the largest they have ever received for a player.
https://twitter.com/Official_ITFC/status/1024339110075539457
17:15

SWANS SIGN CELINA

Swansea have signed Bersant Celina from Man City for undisclosed fee, subject to international clearance.
The 21-year-old midfielder has agreed a four-year deal at the Liberty Stadium.
https://twitter.com/SwansOfficial/status/1024339992456376320
17:04

HEARTS DUO LOANED OUT

Hearts have moved two young players out on loan.
Andrew Irving has joined Falkirk for six months, while Euan Henderson has signed for Ladbrokes League One side Montrose on a similar deal.
Midfielder Irving, 18, made six first-team appearances for Hearts last season after returning from a temporary stint at Berwick.
Henderson, who is also 18, has played 14 first-team games for Hearts.
16:43

CITY SIGN SANDLER

Man City have confirmed the signing of Dutch defender Philippe Sandler from Eredivisie club PEC Zwolle.
16:36

AFTERNOON HEADLINES

OK for those of you just joining us - firstly where have you been? - but here is a quick roundup of where we stand with some of the day's main transfer stories...
15:56

DIGNE UNDERGOES EVERTON MEDICAL

Lucas Digne's move to Everton from Barcelona is imminent with a deal expected to be announced on Tuesday evening, Sky Sports News understands.
The former Paris Saint-Germain left-back has been undergoing a medical on Tuesday after a £20m agreement was reached between the two clubs on Sunday evening.
Everton would still like to sign Digne's Barcelona team-mate Yerry Mina, who has also been linked with a move to Manchester United.
15:45

BARCA KEEN ON MIGNOLET

Barcelona are among the clubs interested in signing Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, according to Sky sources.
Last week we brought you the news that Besiktas had made contact about a move, but according to Sky sources they’re yet to follow it up with a firm approach.
Mignolet has fallen further down the pecking order at Anfield since the world record arrival of Alisson from Roma.
15:25

'I THOUGHT RONALDO DEAL WAS IMPOSSIBLE'

Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini admits he assumed a deal to bring Cristiano Ronaldo to Turin from Real Madrid was "impossible".
Chiellini was not optimistic a deal for Ronaldo, who trained with his new team-mates in Turin for the first time on Tuesday, would be completed, but believes he will transform the title-winning side.
"[The first time I heard about Ronaldo], I said to my friends, 'Nah, it's impossible,'" Chiellini told ESPN in an exclusive interview ahead of Wednesday's MLS All-Star game. "After one day, [I thought] maybe it is possible.
"With our manager, with our director ... it's a reality. Juventus is growing ... year after year, and we need a champion like Cristiano.
"We are excited, we are ready to work with him; all the parts of the club, the players, the marketing manager, the director, are ready to improve with Cristiano and we hope he can help us to achieve our target."
15:03

LEEDS COMPLETE BAMFORD SIGNING

Leeds have signed Patrick Bamford from fellow Championship side Middlesbrough on a four-year deal for a fee of £7m, rising to £10m.
Bamford has played for England at U21 level and spent five years at Chelsea but did not make any senior appearances for the London side.
However, he was loaned out to several clubs, including Middlesbrough, who signed him permanently in January 2017.
He scored 13 goals in 44 games last term as Boro reached the play-offs, before losing in the semi-finals.
https://twitter.com/LUFC/status/1024308704831840257
14:46

FOREST GREEN LAND DIGBY

Forest Green have landed one of their principal targets with the signing of Paul Digby from Mansfield for an undisclosed fee.
The 23-year-old, who can play in midfield or defence and has signed a two-year deal, began his career with Barnsley before moving on to Ipswich and then Mansfield, where he made 21 appearances last season.
14:29

WEST BROM RE-SIGN MYHILL

Goalkeeper Boaz Myhill has agreed a new one-year deal with West Brom after initially being released by the Baggies.
https://twitter.com/WBA/status/1024298000921894913
14:15

FULHAM KEEN ON GUILAVOGUI

Fulham are interested in signing Wolfsburg midfielder Josuha Guilavogui, according to Sky sources.
The 27-year-old defensive-midfielder has two years left on his contract and the Whites are looking for another player of his profile to compete with Kevin McDonald.
Guilavogui is a France international with seven caps, but has not played on the international scene since 2015.
The player joined Wolfsburg from Atletico Madrid on an initial two-year loan deal in 2014 before making the move permanent in 2016.
But he suffered a neck injury in a friendly that summer and did not return to action again until the following November.
Born in France but of Guinean descent, Guilavogui began his career as a youth at Toulon and Saint-Etienne, where he broke into the first-team before signing for Atletico in 2013.
14:06

SWANS SIGN MCKAY FROM FOREST

Swansea City have signed winger Barrie McKay from Nottingham Forest for an undisclosed fee.
https://twitter.com/SwansOfficial/status/1024293416203640832
13:52

DORTMUND'S WITSEL PURSUIT

Borussia Dortmund remain interested in Tianjin Quanjian's Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel, but there is still some way to go if they are to get the transfer over the line, according to Kicker.
Talk of a medical taking place was premature, and there may also be an issue with his £18m release clause, although Dortmund remain determined to get the deal over the line.
13:41

SMITH ROWE SIGNS NEW DEAL

Arsenal midfielder Emile Smith Rowe has signed a new long-term contract with the club.
The 18-year-old scored his first senior goal for the club in their pre-season clash with Atletico last week, and provided an assist in the 5-1 win over PSG on Saturday.
13:39

'JOSE'S DEMEANOUR MAY BE FAKE'

Jose Mourinho's current downbeat demeanour at Manchester United may be exaggerated for the media, says Clinton Morrison.
The United boss has vented his frustration on a wide range of topics during the club's pre-season tour of America - ranging from a lack of transfer activity to some of his squad returning late from the World Cup - while also singling out players including Antonio Valencia and Anthony Martial for criticism.
"He [Mourinho] might be so frustrated with the media but in the changing room he might be saying something totally different to his players," Morrison told Sky Sports News. "It looks like from the outside it is not a happy camp but from the inside it might be a very happy camp.
"He's been very frustrated, Jose Mourinho. Over the last few years, it has gotten worse and worse. He looks like he hardly wants to speak to the media."
13:21

MEYER STATS

With Max Meyer in talks with Crystal Palace, we look at his statistics from the 2017/18 season.
13:04

LOWTON SIGNS NEW DEAL

Defender Matt Lowton has signed a new contract with Burnley.
The 29-year-old's previous contract ran until 2020, but he had extended it for an additional year.
12:44

TRANSFER CENTRE

Our latest Sky Sports News bulletin with the best transfers stories from Tuesday so far
12:38

MACC SIGN MAYCOCK

Coventry midfielder Callum Maycock has linked up with League Two side Macclesfield Town on a season-long loan.
12:22

WILLIAN BACK TOMORROW

Sky sources: Chelsea winger Willian will report back to pre-season training tomorrow, following reports that he was absent today.
The club are fully aware of his movements and gave him prior permission to return late.
12:19

PEREZ'S £7M PRICE TAG

Arsenal have put a £7m price tag on Lucas Perez after interest from Serie A side Lazio, according to Corriere di Roma.
The Spaniard spent last season on loan at his former club, Deportivo, scoring eight goals in 35 La Liga appearances. Lazio sporting director Igli Tare believes a deal will be done by the end of the transfer window.
11:58

BLADES CLOSE ON WOODBURN

Sky sources: Sheffield United are close to agreeing a season-long loan move for Liverpool’s Ben Woodburn
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp is a big fan of the player but also thinks a season at the right club would help his development.
11:41

BREAKING NEWS

Sky sources are telling us Crystal Palace are in talks to sign German forward Max Meyer.
The Germany international has been a free agent since leaving Schalke at the end of last season and Palace are confident of completing a deal for the 22-year-old.
11:28

SWANSEA'S WOODS APPROACH DENIED

Sky Sports News understands Swansea have made an initial offer for Brentford's Ryan Woods, and it has been rejected
Brentford will not sell Woods for anything short of his valuation.
11:09

MIDDAY WHISPERS

Here are the latest transfer rumours from our friends at Football Whispers...
https://storify.com/services/proxy/2/JgcZWpVIMAwsxALN9l4RNQ/https/d2kmm3vx031a1h.cloudfront.net/EX7shXRTQlK4TcFJ4Ey7_whispers.png
11:08

SWANSEA WANT WOODS

Swansea City are in talks with Brentford over midfielder Ryan Woods, Sky Sports News understands.
The Welsh club see Woods as an ideal replacement for Leon Britton, who announced his retirement from football at the end of last season after more than 500 games for the club.
The 24-year-old was the Supporters’ Player of the Year last season.
10:51

BELGIUM ASSISTANT JOINS BAGGIES

Graeme Jones has stepped down down from his role as assistant coach with Belgium and will become assistant to Darren Moore at West Brom, Sky sources understand.
Jones ends a relationship with Belgium boss Roberto Martinez which started at Swansea before moving on to Wigan, Everton and his latest role.
10:39

DERBY SIGN EVANS

Derby have signed midfielder George Evans from Reading for an undisclosed fee
The 23-year-old has signed a three-year deal, and is Derby’s fifth signing of the summer. Manager Frank Lampard worked with Evans while at Manchester City
10:24

SEVILLA IN FOR BAKAYOKO?

Sevilla are interested in Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko and could make a move should their current French midfielder Steven N'Zonzi leave the club, according to RMC Sport.
It's not known whether they will be able to match his current wages, and Bakayoko has recently turned down offers from both Milan clubs.
10:07

LEICESTER, EVERTON IN FOR ALCACER

Barcelona forward Paco Alcacer is on the radars of Leicester and Everton as the Premier League clubs look to bolster their striking options ahead of the new season, according to Sport.
Barcelona have set his price at £27m.
09:55

WHAT DOES YOUR CLUB NEED?

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09:33

MORE ON HIGUAIN

The loan deal is thought to be worth around 18-20m euros, with Milan having the option to buy Higuain for 36m euros next summer.
Higuain's loan move is part of the swap deal between Juve and Milan for defenders Mattia Caldara and Leonardo Bonucci. Bonucci, who left Juve last summer for Milan, wants to return to Turin.
Chelsea were previously favourites to sign 30-year-old forward Higuain.
09:25

BREAKING NEWS

Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain has accepted a loan move to AC Milan, according to Sky in Italy.
09:13

POCH ON EARLY WINDOW

Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino has previously voiced concerns over the early closure of the Premier League transfer window - with the deadline on Thursday, August 9 - and reiterated that point of view on Tuesday.
"In that situation I think it didn't help or it is not going to help the Premier League clubs," he said. "You are going to compete in the Champions League and I think to have 20 days less is not going to help."
09:01

MORE ON MAWSON

Fulham appear to have beaten competition from fellow Premier League sides Burnley and West Ham for Mawson's signature.
The London side will pay £15m up-front for the centre-half.
08:53

BREAKING NEWS

Sky sources: Swansea defender Alfie Mawson is currently having a medical at Fulham
08:46

DEMBELE IN, RAMSEY OUT?

Arsenal are closing in on Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele, according to reports in The Sun.
The club's summer spending looks close to being over - but the arrival of Dembele would provide a boost to Unai Emery, although The Sun reports the Catalan club want to take Aaron Ramsey as part of an exchange deal for the 21-year-old France international.
Ramsey was linked to Chelsea earlier this week and although Emery has said he wants to keep the Wales international at Arsenal, the Gunners are relatively blessed in central midfield, including Matteo Guendouzi, who impressed during the club's Asian tour.
08:32

WHAT DOES YOUR CLUB NEED?

Keep them coming!
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08:11

NEW MAGUIRE DEAL?

Leicester City are poised to offer Harry Maguire a new deal worth £95,000-per-week to stave off interest from Manchester United, according to theDaily Express.
Leicester manager Claude Puel is confident Maguire will remain at the club, despite interest from United.
Sky Sports News reported last week United approached Leicester over the sale of the England centre-back.
It is understood United valued the player, who starred in England's World Cup campaign, at around £65m but Puel is certain the 25-year-old will remain at the club.
07:58

ADAM'S SHAQIRI WARNING

Xherdan Shaqiri's former team-mate Charlie Adam has warned Liverpool over the Switzerland international's attitude.
Adam described Shaqiri as a "top player", who deserved to be at a club of Liverpool's stature, but questioned his commitment at crucial times in Stoke's relegation fight.
"He's a big player, at times he did well for us," Adam told BBC Sport. "But in critical situations, I felt tracking back and what we needed for the team in a relegation battle just wasn't there.
"He is a match-winner, but at times it was difficult to play in the same team. The manager would let him get away with certain things."
07:44

PAPER TALK

• Liverpool and Chelsea have been dealt a transfer blow over Christian Pulisic who looks set to stay at Borussia Dortmund (Daily Express)
  
• Cardiff City are eyeing a £15m bid for Watford captain Troy Deeney as they prepare for their return to the Premier League (The Sun)
  
• Red Bull Leipzig are making an improved £18m bid for Everton winger Ademola Lookman (Daily Mail)
  
• Everton are leading the race for £30m defender Marcos Rojo, who has been told he can leave Manchester United (Daily Mirror)
  

07:33

GET INVOLVED!

https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1024195494946451456
07:20

'NO NEED FOR COUTINHO REPLACEMENT'

Liverpool have no need to fill the void left by midfielder Philippe Coutinho, according to manager Jurgen Klopp.
"You cannot replace Phil Coutinho with exactly the same kind of player," Klopp said. "He's Phil Coutinho. He has a specific style of play, tactically an outstanding player, can play as the winger, the '10', the '8' - really great.
"I don't want to put one of my players in the position where people will now say constantly 'he's the Phil replacement'."
Read more of Klopp's thoughts HERE
07:09

'BALE CAN PLUG RONALDO GAP'

Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui says Gareth Bale is "very happy" at the club, and is the perfect man to fill the gap left by Cristiano Ronaldo.
07:04

MORNING WHISPERS

Here are the latest transfer rumours from our friends at Football Whispers...
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06:50

JOSE CONFIDENT OF ONE SIGNING

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says he is confident he will be able to add one more player to his squad before the transfer window closes.
He told beIN Sports: "I am confident I will get one, but I think two I am not going to get - which is not a drama. In every pre-season it happens the same, with every club, which is that the manager wants more.
"It's our nature, you always want more for your team, but then club decisions are different and normally you don't get what you want, which happened during all my career.
"So, if I get one player until the end of the market, that's fine."
06:38

JOSE'S FRUSTRATIONS

As Manchester United's pre-season tour of the United States reaches its conclusion in Miami, Sky Sports News reporter Vinny O'Connor examines whether Jose Mourinho's pre-season frustrations are justified.
And are they transfer related?
06:31

MORE ON VECINO

Inter are understood to want £32m for the Uruguay international, who featured in each of his country's games at the World Cup in Russia.
The 26-year-old played under new Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri at Empoli in 2014/15 and was an integral member for Inter in Serie A last season, making 29 appearances and scoring three goals.
Sarri has already signed midfielder Jorginho from former club Napoli and goalkeeper Rob Green on a free transfer, but it looks like the Italian is keen to further bolster his squad ahead of the transfer window closing on August 9.
06:29

TRANSFER HEADLINES

• Swans sign City's Celina
  
• City sign Zwolle's Sandler
  
• Digne has Everton medical
  
• Mignolet interests Barca
  
• Leeds seal Bamford signing
  
• Fulham keen on Guilavogui
  
• Lowton signs three-year year
  
• Willian back with Blues on Wed
  
• Blades near Woodburn loan
  
• Palace in talks to sign Meyer
  
• Regionals: Blues eye Hazard deal
  
• Euro Papers: Barca want Nzonzi
  
• Papers: PL duo to fail on Pulisic
  
• Transfer Talk podcast: Download
  
• Premier League ins and outs
  
• Fantasy Football: Win £50k
  

06:28

OVERNIGHT BREAKING

Chelsea are in talks to sign Inter Milan midfielder Matias Vecino, according to Sky sources.
06:20

GOOD MORNING!

And welcome to Sky Sports' live Transfer Centre, bringing you all of the latest news and rumours from the window...
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