When is Carabao Cup third round draw? Date, start time, FREE live stream, TV channel, bowls and ball numbers

THE Carabao Cup is rolling on into the third round - and the Premier League big boys join the party with the draw taking place TONIGHT.

From this season the third round draw has been hit with an almighty change because of the new Champions League format.

The Carabao Cup third round will be played across two midweeks this term (w/c 16 Sept and w/c 23 Sept) due to the new European schedule.

Carabao Cup third round rule changes

The draw will consist of 32 clubs – 25 winners from the second round with the seven Premier League clubs in European competitions also entering in this round.

For the main draw, this season TWO separate bowls will be used for picking the balls:

• Bowl 1 - the six Champions League and Europa League clubs
• Bowl 2 - the remaining 26 clubs

A pre-draw will take place before Nottingham Forest vs Newcastle United on Wednesday 28 August to determine the home/away positioning of the six clubs in bowl 1 for the first six ties of the main draw.

Then in the main draw, which takes place after the match at the City Ground, the first six ties will be drawn by switching between one club from Bowl 1 and one club from Bowl 2, with the home/away positioning of the clubs from Bowl 1 already pre-determined in the pre-draw.

The remaining ten ties will then be drawn from teams in Bowl 2 only to complete the draw with Bowl 1 sides already picked.

And from this round of the competition, the draw is no longer split into northern and southern sections.

When is the Carabao Cup third round draw?

The Carabao Cup main draw takes place on Wednesday, August 28 following the conclusion of Nottingham Forest vs Newcastle, expected at around 10.15pm BST.