...AND THEY’VE LOST IT TOO!
TWITTER and the EFL were forced to apologise after the Carabao Cup was struck by yet more embarrassment yesterday, with the quarter-final draw delayed by an hour and 45 minutes following a ‘minor technical glitch’. As A Question Of Sport captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell — who were blameless — stood ready to draw the balls, fans were left fuming when it was announced that the 4pm start time had been moved back an hour. At 5.45pm, an eight-minute recording of the draw was published. Arsenal host West Ham in the pick of the ties, Manchester United travel to Bristol City, Chelsea host Bournemouth and Leicester are at home to Manchester
City. Left red-faced by the events, twitter and the eFL were later forced to apologise. A spokesman stated: ‘We’re sorry for the issues that led to the delay of today’s round five draw. We would also like to apologise to the thousands of supporters who had been patiently awaiting news of who their teams would be playing.’ After four announcements explaining the delay, the draw was finally shown as a pre-recorded video. It is not the first time the Carabao Cup has come under fire, with most of the draws in this year’s competition being hit by controversy. the first-round draw descended into farce when Charlton were shown as playing twice, while in the second round four ties were drawn incorrectly. If all that was not enough, the bizarre decision was taken to hold the third-round draw in Beijing at 4.15am UK time.
QUARTER-FINALS: Chelsea v Bournemouth, Arsenal v West Ham United, Bristol City v Man United, Leicester City v Man City.