Newcastle United set to unveil Adidas shirt addition supporters will love - look away Liverpool
Newcastle United will display a unique change to its Adidas home shirt against Bradford City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
Newcastle United host Bradford City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night (7:45pm kick-off).
The match marks The Magpies’ first game in the competition since winning it with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool at Wembley Stadium back in March. The success ended Newcastle’s 70-year domestic trophy drought as well as the first time the club had won the competition.
Ahead of the 2025/26 Carabao Cup campaign, the EFL confirmed official shirt changes for Newcastle and 23 other clubs in the competition.
Following suit from the Champions League, the Carabao Cup has introduced competition sleeve badges to recognise previous winners of the competition.
Newcastle will wear the default Champions League sleeve badge next season while Liverpool will have the Champions League logo with a ‘6’ to recognise how many times the club has won the competition. Holders Paris Saint-Germain will have a special winners' sleeve badge with a ‘1’ on after winning the competition for the first time back in May.
A similar system will take place in the Carabao Cup with all 24 previous winners of the competition getting a specific badge based on how many times they have won the competition. Teams that have never won the competition will wear the default Carabao Cup sleeve badge that was worn by all teams last season.
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Newcastle United special Carabao Cup sleeve badge on display v Bradford
To recognise their 2025 Carabao Cup success, Newcastle will wear a golden Carabao Cup sleeve badge in the 2025/26 competition with a ‘1’ on it as it was the club’s first time lifting the trophy.
The new addition to Newcastle’s shirt will make its first match appearance against Bradford at St James’ Park on Wednesday evening.
Liverpool may have missed out on the inaugural golden badge to Newcastle, but the Merseyside club will have a traditional green sleeve badge sporting the number ‘10’ as the competition’s most successful side.
During their 4-0 defeat to Doncaster Rovers last month, Newcastle’s north east rivals Middlesbrough wore a ‘1’ on their sleeve having lifted the EFL Cup back in 2004. Sunderland, having not won the competition previously, wore the default badge after being knocked out on penalties by League One side Huddersfield Town.
West Bromwich Albion, Queens Park Rangers, Leeds United, Swindon Town, Stoke City, Oxford United, Luton Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers and Swansea City will also have a ‘1’ on their sleeve. Norwich City, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Arsenal will have a ‘2’.
Leicester City will have ‘3’, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest will have ‘4’, Aston Villa and Chelsea ‘5’, Manchester United ‘6’ and Manchester City ‘8’.
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Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup boost in 2025/26
After doing things the hard way to win the Carabao Cup last season, beating Nottingham Forest, AFC Wimbledon, Chelsea, Brentford, Arsenal and Liverpool on the way to ending a 70-year domestic trophy drought, Newcastle have been handed a boost in the competition this season.
Having qualified for Europe, Newcastle have been handed a bye to the third round of the competition. Last season, controversial rules were introduced to favour the European clubs as in addition to the bye, they would also avoid drawing one another in the third round.
It was a rule change that has resulted in Newcastle being drawn against League One side Bradford City, with the winners progressing through to the last-16.
But Newcastle’s record against lower-league sides isn’t too convincing with narrow wins against Birmingham City, Bromley, AFC Wimbledon and Tranmere Rovers as well as shock defeats to Cambridge United and Sheffield Wednesday under Howe.