The EFL is coming! From the 2024-25 season, CBS Sports would be the unique house to the three divisions of the English Football League — the Championship and Leagues One and Two — in addition to the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy. That means 9 months of the kind of heart-pounding, high-stakes drama that attracts over 23 million supporters throughout England and Wales to the 72 golf equipment yearly. From fallen Premier League giants to Football League debutants, the 2024-25 EFL is bound to ship.Â
CBS Sports will air at the very least 250 EFL matches every season by way of the 2027-28 season, with video games being out there 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,” mentioned 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’s a take a look at the opening weekend schedule of video games that can be aired:
All occasions Eastern
Friday, Aug. 9
Blackburn vs. Derby County, 3 p.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network
Preston North End vs. Sheffield United, 3 p.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network
Saturday, Aug. 10
Oxford United vs. Norwich City, 7:30 a.m. on Paramount+
Leeds United vs. Portsmouth, 7:30 a.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network
Middlesbrough vs. Swansea City, 7:30 a.m. on Paramount+
Cardiff City vs. Sunderland, 7:30 a.m. on Paramount+
Queens Park Rangers vs. West Brom, 7:30 a.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network
Milton Keynes Dons vs. Bradford City, 10 a.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network
Birmingham City vs. Reading, 12:30 p.m. on Paramount+
Wrexham vs. Wycombe Wanderers, 12:30 p.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network
Sunday, Aug. 11
Sheffield Wednesday vs. Plymouth Argyle, 11 a.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network
Monday, Aug. 12
Luton Town vs. Burnley, 3 p.m. on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network
Here are 5 the explanation why you may want to be glued to our protection within the months forward:
1. Leagues with the whole lot to play for
It’s April 24, 2024. For most golf equipment within the EFL Championship, there are solely two video games left to play. The season is almost completed and but completely nothing is determined. Leeds United would possibly get 96 factors and nonetheless not discover themselves promoted to the Premier League. Every workforce from Stoke City in seventeenth to Huddersfield Town in twenty third are scrapping with the whole lot they’ve to keep away from becoming a member of Rotherham United within the three relegation spots. Hull City nonetheless have hopes of reaching the highest six and with it a spot within the promotion playoffs. The center third of the desk — from Middlesbrough in ninth to Millwall in sixteenth — are separated by simply 10 factors.
It is, then, simply one other week within the Championship. This is what makes the league so beloved by neutrals, so dreaded by lots of its contributors. It is really a league the place anybody can beat anybody, the place a facet can go from heroes to zeros in a run of six video games. If the league above it’s as closely stratified because it has ever been, the Championship at all times begins with supporters dreaming that they may very well be this yr’s Blackpool or Huddersfield, a workforce that rises from the relegation scrap one yr to be on the cusp of the Premier League the subsequent. That works each methods too. Anyone who has seen the documentary sequence “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” is aware of that the second tier will brutally punish those that assume they’re too good for it.
Step additional down the pyramid and the drama would not ease up. In 2022-23, Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday slugged out the League One title race in thrilling style, the latter lacking out on computerized promotion however then overturning a four-goal first leg deficit to beat Peterborough United of their playoff semifinal. At the opposite finish of the desk that season had been Oxford United. Just over a yr later, they’re readying themselves for his or her first season within the second tier after their playoff closing win at Wembley.
League Two might need been just a little extra sedate final season, however two seasons earlier it delivered one of the crucial thrilling finishes to an English league season, Bristol City successful 7-0 to one way or the other overturn Northampton Town’s purpose distinction benefit and snare computerized promotion. That’s the enjoyment of the EFL. It actually does take you to the final kick of the ball.
Don’t miss CBS Sports Golazo Network’s Morning Footy, now in podcast type! Our crew brings you all of the information, views, highlights and laughs you want to comply with the Beautiful Game in each nook of the globe, each Monday-Friday all yr lengthy.
2. U.S. curiosity in abundance
A brand new yr brings new hope for USMNT watchers and boy do they want it. The EFL has lengthy been a breeding floor for American expertise, providing present internationals Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson their first style of senior soccer in Europe whereas the likes of Donovan Pines, Paul Arriola and even Golazo Network’s personal Mike Grella have seen an opportunity to shine within the English recreation.
Whoever succeeds Gregg Berhalter as U.S. head coach can be properly suggested to preserve a detailed eye on the 12 Americans within the second tier as of July 15. Norwich’s Josh Sargent and Coventry’s Haji Wright will each be vying to show there’s a place within the XI for them, and with 32 targets shared evenly between them final time period, they are going to be among the many most feared forwards within the division. Auston Trusty was an everyday for Sheffield United within the Premier League final season — can he earn an even bigger function within the setup? Can Brenden Aaronson be a number one gentle for Leeds after a season on the Union Berlin bench? What would possibly Daryl Dike be if he can shake off his harm troubles?
American involvement is much more pronounced off the pitch than on it. At least 19 of the EFL’s 72 golf equipment have some type of vital shareholding or possession from an American. You might need heard of some of them. J.J. Watt and Tom Brady symbolize the opposite type of soccer at Burnley and Birmingham City. Michael Eisner, the person behind the Disney Renaissance, is hoping to obtain an much more spectacular rebirth at Portsmouth. Then there are a few actors on the helm of Wrexham. Have you heard?
3. Some of the perfect derbies on this planet
When it comes to enmity between neighbors, few competitions can higher the EFL, which is able to play host to a few of England’s nice rivalries this season. Sheffield United’s relegation from the Premier League final season affords the Steel City its first derby in six years when the Blades welcome Wednesday to Bramall Lane on Nov. 9. There can be the brilliantly named Lanclasico to await as Burnley resume an East Lancashire rivalry with Blackburn 140 years within the making. The decide of the crop would possibly simply be the South Wales derby; such is the detest between followers of Cardiff City and Swansea City that in 1993 it turned the primary English fixture to ban away followers from attending.
The decrease divisions are additionally full of golf equipment contemptuous of others. In League One, Cambridge United and Peterborough followers do not a lot take care of one another, nor do Bolton’s and Wigan’s. Meanwhile, newly promoted Wrexham reignited a cross-border rivalry with Shrewsbury Town in final season’s FA Cup, and now they may face off once more within the league.
Perhaps probably the most impassioned hatred in all English soccer is to be present in League Two. It would appear perverse to name AFC Wimbledon’s conferences with MK Dons as derbies, the entire premise of the previous’s loathing dates again to 2003 when house owners of then-Wimbledon Football Club deserted south London for Milton Keynes, an unimaginable assault on the foundations of the English recreation. From the rubble, AFC Wimbledon constructed one thing new, a facet that rose up above MK Dons for a time and now discover themselves pitted in the identical division. When these two meet at Wimbledon’s Plough Lane on Sept. 14, it guarantees to be a match wealthy in hostility.
4. A breeding floor for younger expertise
The expertise manufacturing unit that’s the EFL hardly ever takes lengthy to churn out the subsequent celebrity of the sport, in England and typically past. Peruse those that gained the competitors’s Young Player of the Year and you will note expertise that has sparkled far past the decrease leagues: Gareth Bale, Wilfried Zaha, Dele Alli, Ollie Watkins, Michael Olise and a sure Jude Bellingham. That is kind of the roll name of expertise manufacturing away from the highest tier.
For some, an EFL mortgage is the start line for a profession on the highest stage — Ian Maatsen, Ben White and Fikayo Tomori proved their value within the decrease leagues — but it surely is not simply by way of borrowing from the Premier League that these golf equipment forge stars. Charlton Athletic, as an illustration, had two academy graduates in England’s Euro 2024 squad. In a time of nice off-field turbulence, they hadn’t simply unearthed and developed Ezri Konsa and Joe Gomez however had additionally introduced by way of Europa League star Ademola Lookman. James Maddison was cast at Coventry City, Eberechi Eze is likely one of the stand-out graduates from the extremely productive academy at Queens Park Rangers whereas Ivan Toney and Watkins each took the lengthy journey by way of the EFL to the England squad.
Then there may be, after all, Bellingham, the celebrity midfielder who left Birmingham City at 17 however whose shirt was nonetheless retired to function an inspiration for others. Already the likes of Alex Scott and Archie Gray try to comply with in his footsteps, large cash strikes to prime sides at a younger age. Those used to be restricted to the Premier League however now Serie A and La Liga giants are being linked with EFL expertise on a weekly foundation. There is not any higher time, it appears, to get forward of the sport when it comes to expertise recognizing.
5. Playoff mayhem
Though the English recreation would possibly instinctively tut at most Americanized types of the game — there was a lot shaking of heads on this facet of the pond on the information that halftime can be prolonged on the Copa America closing to accommodate Shakira — one innovation that has gone down a deal with is the playoffs. There is not any better drama than that which comes within the month of May as what’s left of the EFL battle for promotion, culminating within the richest recreation in sport for the 2 Championship sides bidding to attain the Premier League.
The aforementioned fightback from the brink by Sheffield Wednesday. The penalty save by Manuel Almunia at one finish main to Troy Deeney’s final second strike on the different to propel Watford to Wembley in 2013. Clive Mendonca, Niall Quinn and the 14 penalties it took to separate Charlton and Sunderland again in 1998. No one does drama fairly just like the EFL and there can be loads of it on the highway to Wembley.
