Bristol City and Bristol Rovers could draw each other in this year's carabao Cup after the AFL did away with seating for the competition that means the two clubs could meet in the first round of the competition with the Robins being given ball five in the draw and Rovers fall six it is part of some major changes to the competition including the scrapping of extra time the regionalized format of north and south will remain in place for the draw however meaning there is a realistic chance of the two great rivals playing each other last time the two sides met was in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2013 with City running out two to one winners the EFL have announced that the draw for the first round of the 2018 19 carabao cup will take place in Vietnam on Friday it is the second year in succession that the carabao Cup draw will take place overseas after the Bangkok and Beijing hosted draws last year the EFL will no doubt be hoping that the Drago's more smoothly than the farcical scenes of last year's first round tie in Bangkok in which Charlton Athletic were shown to be playing twice and teams were given the wrong opponent in on-screen graphics the 2017 carabao Cup first round draw was plagued with difficulties image Getty sound issues in a stalling feed also plagued the draw which was streamed live [Music] despite this the EFL then took the third round draw on the road to Beijing in a move that drew criticism due to the fact that it was held at 4:15 a.m. UK time at the time a spokesman for the football supporters Federation said in our 2017 national supporters survey fans expressed increasing frustration at instances of overseas audiences apparently being prioritized over domestic supporters holding the dry in Beijing at that time can only increase the sense of disconnection many domestic fans feel Steve McManaman Louis Saha and Dennis Wise will help draw the teams in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam largest city EFL chief executive Sean Harvey said the aim of going abroad is to promote the competition internationally he said a principle aim of our partnership with carrabelle has always been to promote the competition internationally taking high-profile activities such as the competition draws overseas to support the AFL's international growth strategy and raise awareness of the competition in carabaos key territories there is no requirement for us to take draws overseas but there is an absolute commitment to building the value of our competition outside the UK and the market and Vietnam should help the EFL and Kerry Bao meet our shared ambitions the round one draw is always significant mapping out the opening stages of a competition that continues to attract a large audience at home and abroad with almost 1.5 million people attending carabao Cup matches last season and games shown across the world in over 150 regions at the AFL's recent 2018 summer conference clubs voted to a number of rule changes in the carabao cup including the removal of extra time which should help address team selection and additional fatigue issues that can sometimes be caused when midweek ties go beyond 90 minutes seating arrangements have also been removed from the first two rounds which should make for some interesting early round draws we've had some great finals in recent years with the country's biggest clubs showing their appetite for success in the competition and I look forward to seeing how the 2018 19 Edition unfolds from here on in [Music]