Gillingham will find out who they face in the first round of the Carabao Cup later this week.

The League Cup – now sponsored by the Thai energy drink company Carabao – will be seeded during the opening round.

A deal with competition sponsors Carabao is in place until 2020.

Possible opponents for the Gills include five-time winners Aston Villa and 2011 victors Birmingham City.

The draw takes place on Friday, in Bangkok, with 70 Football League teams included in the opening stage.

First round matches will take place on week commencing August 7.

Premier League teams who aren’t involved in European competition enter at the second round stage, along with Hull City and Middlesbrough.

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Those seeded teams who could face the Gills in round one are as follows;

Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Brentford, Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Millwall, MK Dons, Norwich City, Oxford United, Peterborough, QPR, Reading, Southend and Wolves.

Gillingham had a memorable campaign last season, beating Southend United in the opening round before a comeback win over Premier League Watford in round two.

The run ended with a 5-0 defeat against Tottenham at White Hart Lane.

Fixtures for the new Football League season will be announced on Wednesday, June 21 and the 2017/18 campaign gets underway on Saturday, August 5.

Gillingham’s first pre-season game will now be against Faversham, after plans for a game against French side Amiens were shelved. That game takes place on Friday, July 7.

Ahead of that game the Gills have training camps in Northern Ireland and France.

Business not pleasure: Read what awaits the Gills players when they return for pre-season.