How nine teams in Europe affects Premier League - and maybe York City

Teams qualifying for Europe receive a bye to the third round of the EFL Cup. And ordinarily, the teams who finish 18th and 19th in the Premier League receive a bye into round two - with the rest of the top-flight teams who avoided relegation. But all this depends on the number of clubs who qualify for Europe, which affects the number of slots in the third round. The more teams who get a bye to round three, the fewer slots there are for teams to come through round two. For the straight knockout format to work, there must be 32 teams in round three. That means if eight teams have had a bye through qualifying for Europe, 24 teams must come through from the second round. And that means 24 knockout ties in round two - which must therefore have 48 teams. And it means 36 teams must come through from the first round. For the maths to work, West Ham and Burnley must start in the first round, to be played on the weekend of 7-9 August. They make it 72 teams and 36 first-round ties. With nine teams having qualified, it is a little more complicated. Only 23 slots are available in round three, so the EFL must lose a tie - or two teams - via preliminary round fixtures. It will feature the two teams promoted from the National League - York and Rochdale - and the clubs who were 21st and 22nd in League Two - Tranmere and Crawley. But there is a snag, because the first round is regionalised into northern and southern sections. When this happened last season, there was the perfect solution. …