Just as with almost every round to date, the draw for the fifth round of the Carabao Cup has been the subject of self-inflicted ridicule.
The nonsense began a day or two beforehand when the EFL announced that Matt Dawson (ex-England rugby player) and Phil Tufnell (ex-England cricketer) had been drafted in to perform the draw for England's secondary football cup competition.
— James Dart (@James_Dart) October 26, 2017
Cometh the big day, and cometh the big debacle, with Carabao forced to delay the draw multiple times after the event was besieged by "technical glitches."
Draw delayed: Carabao Cup Round Five Draw will now take place at 5pm following a minor technical glitch at Twitter HQ.
— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) October 26, 2017
Of course, this proved to be of great amusement to the watching world, who have already seen the League Cup slide further into farce under the stewardship of Carabao than ever before.
Textbook https://t.co/5fpxbovj2F
— Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) October 26, 2017
Lunch break ruined. Planned around it and everything. https://t.co/rNyS4FnDrx
— Tom Coast (@thcoast) October 26, 2017
Carabao Cup draw at 4pm, they said.https://t.co/2ocpLqOZ8U pic.twitter.com/HqLyEBIBkv
— FourFourTwo ⚽️ (@FourFourTwo) October 26, 2017
In tribute to West Ham's performance last night, the Carabao Cup draw will start playing an hour after it was supposed to
— Tom Victor (@tomvictor) October 26, 2017
This #CarabaoCup draw is taking so long Mertesacker has just caught it up and tackled it.
— Stephen Tudor (@SteTudor123) October 26, 2017
Things needed for a cup draw:
— Chris Wise (@chriswisey) October 26, 2017
* Numbered balls
* Large bucket
* Average sized hands
* Sheet of A4
* Pen
Anyone able to help?#CarabaoCup
Somebody Photoshop Matt Dawson's face onto one of these, thx pic.twitter.com/bIPlFfCqXp
— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) October 26, 2017
Give it Red Bull till the end of the season. @Carabao_Cup
— Andy Ha (@_AndyHa) October 26, 2017
Organisers eventually gave up on the live stream and went ahead with the draw anyway -- and only revealed it through a pre-recorded video one hour and 45 minutes after it was schedule to begin.
That move -- and the fact that the four Premier League giants all avoided each other -- led to even more head-scratching and some accusations.
Sooo, Chelsea, Man United, Man City & Arsenal were all kept apart in the delayed draw shown on a pre-recorded video
— Premier League Panel (@PremLeaguePanel) October 26, 2017
Not suspicious at all 👀 pic.twitter.com/r15hkcZ44Q
Nearly a 2 hour delay on the draw and none of the top 4 meet each other 🤔 @Carabao_Cup you sure? #fixed
— Baz Cox ⚒ (@Baz1980WHU) October 26, 2017
I'm a united fan and I even think that draw was fixed 😂😂😂 who prerecords a cup draw unless it's rigged 😂😂 #CarabaoCup
— Daryl (@ToddDaryl) October 26, 2017
Twitter took the blame for the technical glitches, but the entire affair was hardly the positive PR shot in the arm the Carabao Cup so desperately requires. What a mess.