Why Man City won’t be thrown out of the Carabao Cup

Manchester City will not be thrown out of the Carabao Cup or have forfeit their semi-final tie against Manchester United next week, despite a COVID-19 outbreak at the club that has already seen a Premier League clash with Everton postponed.

City confirmed just a few hours before they were supposed to face Everton on Monday night that there were a ‘number of positive cases’ from the latest round of testing, in addition to four that had already been reported on Christmas Day.

City explained that with their bubble compromised there was increased threat to other players and staff and beyond. The club also closed their first-team training centre temporarily in an effort to try and curb the possibility of further spreading.

But with games at this time of year coming thick and fast and protocols requiring isolation periods for anyone potentially exposed to a positive case, it is unlikely to be the Everton game that is solely affected and there could be further postponements.

As things stand, City are due to face Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday, followed by the Carabao Cup semi-final against Manchester United three days after that.

Leyton Orient were kicked out of the Carabao Cup earlier this season when they were deemed unable to safely fulfil their third round tie against Tottenham due to an outbreak. But the same fate would not befall City, even though angry social media voices are already calling it unfair.

Competition rules state that forfeits in such circumstances are only applied to the first four rounds. That was when the schedule was severely squeezed in order to fit all the games into a shorter window and postponing and re-arranging games would have been impossible.

The fixture demands have been slightly eased since then and the final has actually been pushed back from its original date of 28 February 2021 to 25 April 2021. The logic there was to give as much chance for as many fans as possible to attend if the coronavirus is more under control by the spring.

For more from Jamie Spencer, follow him on Twitter and Facebook!