The draw for the first round of the Carabao Cup will take place this coming Thursday live on Sky Sports at 4:30pm.
For 2026/27 the first competitive fixture for the Gills will be in the Carabao Cup [August 8], with our opening league fixture taking place the following week. Fixtures are released at midday on Thursday June 25.
Tranmere Rovers will host Rochdale on August 1, before Crawley Town travel to York City on August 3 in the preliminary round, which was required due to the participation of nine Premier League clubs in European competition in the 2026/27 season.
The draw is regionalised into Northern and Southern sections. Gillingham have been allocated ball number 13 in the southern section.
All numbers can be seen below:
Northern Section | Southern Section | ||
| 1 | Accrington Stanley | 1 | AFC Wimbledon |
| 2 | Barnsley | 2 | Barnet |
| 3 | Blackburn Rovers | 3 | Birmingham City |
| 4 | Blackpool | 4 | Bristol City |
| 5 | Bolton Wanderers | 5 | Bristol Rovers |
| 6 | Bradford City | 6 | Bromley |
| 7 | Burnley | 7 | Cambridge United |
| 8 | Burton Albion | 8 | Cardiff City |
| 9 | Chesterfield | 9 | Charlton Athletic |
| 10 | Crewe Alexandra | 10 | Cheltenham Town |
| 11 | Derby County | 11 | Colchester United |
| 12 | Doncaster Rovers | 12 | Exeter City |
| 13 | Fleetwood Town | 13 | Gillingham |
| 14 | Grimsby Town | 14 | Leicester City |
| 15 | Huddersfield Town | 15 | Leyton Orient |
| 16 | Lincoln City | 16 | Luton Town |
| 17 | Mansfield Town | 17 | Millwall |
| 18 | Middlesbrough | 18 | Milton Keynes Dons |
| 19 | Notts County | 19 | Newport County |
| 20 | Oldham Athletic | 20 | Northampton Town |
| 21 | Port Vale | 21 | Norwich City |
| 22 | Preston North End | 22 | Oxford United |
| 23 | Rotherham United | 23 | Peterborough United |
| 24 | Salford City | 24 | Plymouth Argyle |
| 25 | Sheffield United | 25 | Portsmouth |
| 26 | Sheffield Wednesday | 26 | Queens Park Rangers |
| 27 | Shrewsbury Town | 27 | Reading |
| 28 | Stockport County | 28 | Southampton |
| 29 | Stoke City | 29 | Stevenage |
| 30 | West Bromwich Albion | 30 | Swansea City |
| 31 | Wigan Athletic | 31 | Swindon Town |
| 32 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 32 | Walsall |
| 33 | Wrexham | 33 | Watford |
| 34 | Tranmere Rovers or Rochdale | 34 | West Ham United |
| 35 | Wycombe Wanderers | ||
| 36 | York City or Crawley Town | ||
The round dates for the Carabao Cup have been confirmed as the following:
- Round One: Weekend of 7-9 August 2026
- Round Two: w/c 24 August 2026
- Round Three: w/c 7 September and w/c 14 September 2026
- Round Four: w/c 26 October 2026
- Round Five: w/c 14 December 2026
- Semi-Final First Leg: w/c 11 January 2027
- Semi-Final Second Leg: w/c 1 February 2027
- Final: Sunday 21 March 2027
