MK Dons up against old foes as they wait to to discover final group opponents in EFL Trophy
The draw for the group stages of the 2026/27 EFL Trophy has been made, with MK Dons placed in Southern Group H - along with last season's league two rivals Bromley.
The EFL have also confirmed the 16 invited sides from Premier League clubs with category one academies that will join League One and League Two clubs in 2026/27.
They are – Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Tottenham.
The Dons have been drawn into Southern Group H alongside fellow league one newcomers Bromley, who pipped MK to the Sky Bet League Two title on the final day of last season, and Crawley Town.
League Two Crawley avoided relegation to the National League last term by a point.
Dons failed to qualify from the group stages last season, losing all three games.
They suffered heavy defeats to West Ham United Under-21s (5-1) and Swindon Town (4-0) and were also beaten 1-0 at Reading.
The draw to complete the groups will take place live on Sky Sports News this Thursday (June 25th) from 2:30pm.
The men making the draw will be former Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle midfielder, as well as former Northampton Town boss, Kevin Nolan.
Nolan will be pulling the names out of the hat alongside former Ipswich Town skipper Luke Chambers.
The group stage has been split into 16 regional groups of four teams, eight in the northern region and eight in the southern region.
The 16 invited under-21 teams will be placed into their respective northern and southern regional groups, with the 48 EFL clubs placed into pre-determined groups prior to the draw.
Consideration has been given to ensure travel time is minimised and recovery time is maximised for players.
Key dates
EFL Trophy group stage matches will commence in early September, with dates to be confirmed following the release of the fixtures on Thursday.
The round dates for the EFL Trophy have been confirmed as the following:
Group stage: from early September
Round of 32: w/c 7 December
Round of 16: w/c 11 January
Quarter-finals: w/c 15 February
Semi-finals: w/c 8 March
Final: Sunday, April 11th
Competition format
The top two from each group progress to the knockout stages, with EFL Trophy fixtures remaining regionalised until the quarter-final stage.
Matches level after 90 minutes up to the semi-final stage will be determined by a penalty shoot-out.
A period of 30 minutes of extra time will be played in the final should the match be level after 90 minutes.
If still level at the end of extra time, the winners shall be determined by penalty kicks.