CBS Sports to air English Football League and Carabao Cup: How to watch Wrexham, Burnley, Leeds and Americans

The EFL is coming! From the 2024-25 season, CBS Sports will be the exclusive home to the three divisions of the English Football League — the Championship and Leagues One and Two — as well as the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy. That means nine months of the sort of heart-pounding, high-stakes drama that draws over 23 million supporters across England and Wales to the 72 clubs every year. From fallen Premier League giants to Football League debutants, the 2024-25 EFL is sure to deliver. 

CBS Sports will air at least 250 EFL matches each season through the 2027-28 season, with games being available on Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, and CBS Sports Golazo Network.

“The exciting action and prestige of the EFL, as the oldest league in the world, adds tremendous value to CBS Sports’ premium soccer portfolio,” said Dan Weinberg, Executive Vice President, Programming, CBS Sports. “With the EFL’s compelling storylines and growing popularity coupled with our first-class coverage, we look forward to further elevating this league in the U.S. CBS Sports continues to be the premier destination for European football fans in this country with Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network as must-haves with their wide array of soccer properties and robust year-round match coverage.”

Here are five reasons why you’ll need to be glued to our coverage in the months ahead:

1. Leagues with everything to play for

It’s April 24, 2024. For most clubs in the EFL Championship, there are only two games left to play. The season is nearly done and yet absolutely nothing is decided. Leeds United might get 96 points and still not find themselves promoted to the Premier League. Every team from Stoke City in 17th to Huddersfield Town in 23rd are scrapping with everything they have to avoid joining Rotherham United in the three relegation spots. Hull City still have hopes of reaching the top six and with it a spot in the promotion playoffs. The middle third of the table — from Middlesbrough in ninth to Millwall in 16th — are separated by just 10 points.

It is, then, just another week in the Championship. This is what makes the league so beloved by neutrals, so dreaded by many of its participants. It is truly a league where anyone can beat anyone, where a side can go from heroes to zeros in a run of six games. If the league above it is as heavily stratified as it has ever been, the Championship always begins with supporters dreaming that they could be this year’s Blackpool or Huddersfield, a team that rises from the relegation scrap one year to be on the cusp of the Premier League the next. That works both ways too. Anyone who has seen the documentary series “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” knows that the second tier will brutally punish those who think they are too good for it.

Step further down the pyramid and the drama doesn’t ease up. In 2022-23, Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday slugged out the League One title race in thrilling fashion, the latter missing out on automatic promotion but then overturning a four-goal first leg deficit to beat Peterborough United in their playoff semifinal. At the other end of the table that season were Oxford United. Just over a year later, they are readying themselves for their first season in the second tier after their playoff final win at Wembley.

League Two might have been a little more sedate last season, but two seasons earlier it delivered one of the most thrilling finishes to an English league season, Bristol City winning 7-0 to somehow overturn Northampton Town’s goal difference advantage and snare automatic promotion. That’s the joy of the EFL. It really does take you to the last kick of the ball.

Don’t miss CBS Sports Golazo Network’s Morning Footy, now in podcast form! Our crew brings you all the news, views, highlights and laughs you need to follow the Beautiful Game in every corner of the globe, every Monday-Friday all year long.

2. U.S. interest in abundance

A new year brings new hope for USMNT watchers and boy do they need it. The EFL has long been a breeding ground for American talent, offering current internationals Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson their first taste of senior football in Europe while the likes of Donovan Pines, Paul Arriola and even Golazo Network’s own Mike Grella have seen a chance to shine in the English game.

Whoever succeeds Gregg Berhalter as U.S. head coach would be well advised to keep a close eye on the 12 Americans in the second tier as of July 15. Norwich’s Josh Sargent and Coventry’s Haji Wright will both be vying to prove there is a place in the XI for them, and with 32 goals shared evenly between them last term, they will be among the most feared forwards in the division. Auston Trusty was a regular for Sheffield United in the Premier League last season — can he earn a bigger role in the setup? Can Brenden Aaronson be a leading light for Leeds after a season on the Union Berlin bench? What might Daryl Dike be if he can shake off his injury troubles?

American involvement is even more pronounced off the pitch than on it. At least 19 of the EFL’s 72 clubs have some form of significant shareholding or ownership from an American. You might have heard of a few of them. J.J. Watt and Tom Brady represent the other form of football at Burnley and Birmingham City. Michael Eisner, the man behind the Disney Renaissance, is hoping to achieve an even more impressive rebirth at Portsmouth. Then there are a couple of actors at the helm of Wrexham. Have you heard?

3. Some of the best derbies in the world

When it comes to enmity between neighbors, few competitions can better the EFL, which will play host to some of England’s great rivalries this season. Sheffield United’s relegation from the Premier League last season affords the Steel City its first derby in six years when the Blades welcome Wednesday to Bramall Lane on Nov. 9. There is also the brilliantly named Lanclasico to await as Burnley resume an East Lancashire rivalry with Blackburn 140 years in the making. The pick of the crop might just be the South Wales derby; such is the dislike between fans of Cardiff City and Swansea City that in 1993 it became the first English fixture to ban away fans from attending.

The lower divisions are also stuffed with clubs contemptuous of others. In League One, Cambridge United and Peterborough fans don’t much care for each other, nor do Bolton’s and Wigan’s. Meanwhile, newly promoted Wrexham reignited a cross-border rivalry with Shrewsbury Town in last season’s FA Cup, and now they will face off again in the league.

Perhaps the most impassioned hatred in all English football is to be found in League Two. It would seem perverse to call AFC Wimbledon’s meetings with MK Dons as derbies, the whole premise of the former’s loathing dates back to 2003 when owners of then-Wimbledon Football Club abandoned south London for Milton Keynes, an unimaginable attack on the foundations of the English game. From the rubble, AFC Wimbledon built something new, a side that rose up above MK Dons for a time and now find themselves pitted in the same division. When these two meet at Wimbledon’s Plough Lane on Sept. 14, it promises to be a match rich in hostility.

4. A breeding ground for young talent

The talent factory that is the EFL rarely takes long to churn out the next superstar of the game, in England and often beyond. Peruse those who won the competition’s Young Player of the Year and you will see talent that has sparkled far beyond the lower leagues: Gareth Bale, Wilfried Zaha, Dele Alli, Ollie Watkins, Michael Olise and a certain Jude Bellingham. That is quite the roll call of talent production away from the top tier.

For some, an EFL loan is the starting point for a career at the highest level — Ian Maatsen, Ben White and Fikayo Tomori proved their worth in the lower leagues — but it isn’t just through borrowing from the Premier League that these clubs forge stars. Charlton Athletic, for instance, had two academy graduates in England’s Euro 2024 squad. In a time of great off-field turbulence, they hadn’t just unearthed and developed Ezri Konsa and Joe Gomez but had also brought through Europa League star Ademola Lookman. James Maddison was forged at Coventry City, Eberechi Eze is one of the stand-out graduates from the incredibly productive academy at Queens Park Rangers while Ivan Toney and Watkins both took the long journey through the EFL to the England squad.

Then there is, of course, Bellingham, the superstar midfielder who left Birmingham City at 17 but whose shirt was still retired to serve as an inspiration for others. Already the likes of Alex Scott and Archie Gray are attempting to follow in his footsteps, big money moves to top sides at a young age. Those used to be limited to the Premier League but now Serie A and La Liga giants are being linked with EFL talent on a weekly basis. There is no better time, it seems, to get ahead of the game when it comes to talent spotting.

5. Playoff mayhem

Though the English game might instinctively tut at most Americanized forms of the sport — there was much shaking of heads on this side of the pond at the news that halftime would be extended at the Copa America final to accommodate Shakira — one innovation that has gone down a treat is the playoffs. There is no greater drama than that which comes in the month of May as what is left of the EFL battle for promotion, culminating in the richest game in sport for the two Championship sides bidding to reach the Premier League.

The aforementioned fightback from the brink by Sheffield Wednesday. The penalty save by Manuel Almunia at one end leading to Troy Deeney’s last second strike at the other to propel Watford to Wembley in 2013. Clive Mendonca, Niall Quinn and the 14 penalties it took to separate Charlton and Sunderland back in 1998. No one does drama quite like the EFL and there will be plenty of it on the road to Wembley.