Tottenham have been given the green light by the EFL to play their Carabao Cup game with Watford at Stadium MK.
With their new stadium not ready and Wembley unavailable, Spurs applied for permission to play the third-round match at the home of League Two MK Dons.
The matter was discussed at an EFL board meeting on Thursday and Spurs got a favourable decision for the game in the week commencing September 24, despite Watford asking for the game to be reversed.
Chairman Daniel Levy is hoping to announce a date for their opening fixture at their 62,000-seater arena soon, with the club hinting that it might have been ready for the Manchester City game, though could not be certain until much nearer the time.
A Premier League game against Chelsea on November 24 or a midweek clash with Southampton on December 5 are now looking likeliest.
A statement read: “At its meeting on Thursday, the EFL Board granted Tottenham Hotspur Football Club dispensation to play their round three Carabao Cup tie against Watford Football Club later this month at Stadium MK.
“As a result of Wembley Stadium and the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium being unavailable during the week commencing 24 September, the Club approached the EFL prior to last week’s draw requesting the Board consider an application to play at a neutral venue in the event they were drawn at home.
“The rules of the Carabao Cup provide for the board of the EFL to consider the home club’s request to play at neutral venues or to reverse the fixture. The decision to grant dispensation takes into account all relevant circumstances facing the home club at the time the fixture is scheduled to take place.
The board fully considered Tottenham’s request alongside strong representations from Watford, who formally asked the league to play the tie at Vicarage Road.
“It was determined that as a result of Tottenham being drawn at home, the tie should be played at the venue of the club’s request, on the proviso that the visitors will receive a ticket allocation of not less than 10 per cent and Tottenham fund any venue hire costs.
“The dispensation granted has been done so on the basis that any future rounds in this season’s Carabao Cup competition are played at either Wembley Stadium as their current home venue, the new White Hart Lane, or at a neutral venue. The club will not be able to reverse any fixtures in 2018/19, should they progress and be drawn at home in future rounds.”
Spurs applied for permission to play the game at Stadium MK as a ‘home’ fixture before their opponents were announced, but the luck of the draw saw them paired against Watford, which is geographically closer to Milton Keynes than Tottenham.
The club insisted that finding a venue inside the M25 was impossible and did not want to reverse the fixture to allow as many of their own fans to see it as possible.
It means that Mauricio Pochettino’s side look set to play in three different venues this term as the fall-out to delays over their own stadium continue.
The club announced on Monday that their Premier League game with Manchester City has been put back to October 29 in order to play the game at Wembley, with the national stadium hosting an NFL game 24 hours earlier when the match was originally scheduled.
All three of their Champions League home group games will also be played at Wembley, with Barcelona, PSV and Inter Milan visiting north west London.
Spurs were originally due to move into their new stadium for their Premier League clash with Liverpool next weekend, but failures to “critical safety systems” saw them move back to Wembley, where they began the season against Fulham.