\n The FA have confirmed that Clarke will receive a seven-match suspension and a fine of \u00a32,750 following a hearing about something which happened during the Carabao Cup first round back in August.\n<\/p>\n
\n Swindon have been fighting the charge ever since they first learned of it in September, believing that there was not sufficient proof to the initial allegations, but the FA have now ruled and given the 33-year-old a long suspension.\n<\/p>\n
\n The outcome of the hearing was that Clarke admitted to acting “in an improper manner and\/or used indecent behaviour towards an opposing player” with a pair of incidents occurring around the 57th minute and around the 94th minute to two separate Cardiff players.\n<\/p>\n
\n An FA spokesperson confirmed that the written reasons for this suspension will be released in due course.\n<\/p>\n
\n A statement from Swindon Town said: “Swindon Town Football Club strongly condemns the decision of an independent regulatory panel to sanction Ollie Clarke and impose a seven-match suspension following two alleged incidents during our Carabao Cup fixture against Cardiff City on 12 August 2025.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The Club believes the decision falls short of the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt and was instead based on the balance of probabilities.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Throughout this lengthy process, Ollie Clarke has consistently maintained his innocence, a position that has never wavered.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We are concerned by the prolonged nature of the proceedings and the impact this process has had on Ollie\u2019s mental well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“As a club captain, Ollie\u2019s character and integrity have never been in question, and he continues to have the full support of the club, the management, and his teammates.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Swindon Town will continue to support Ollie Clarke fully in the aftermath of this decision.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Town will now have to do without the player that Ian Holloway refers to as “our Rodri” for the next seven games.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Adver asked for clarification, and the suspension will cover all competitions, so Clarke’s next match will be against Salford City in League Two on January 17.\n<\/p>\n
\n This will see him miss the frantic Christmas period, during which Town are already without Adam Murphy and Danny Butterworth as midfield options, on top of losing his versatility at the back, where Swindon have been particularly afflicted with injuries.\n<\/p>\n
\n Aaron Drinan is also serving a two-match suspension at present for picking up his second red card of the season against Bristol Rovers last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n Clarke had been part of a big change for Swindon in recent weeks, forming a very effective midfield trio alongside Tom Nichols and Gavin Kilkenny, but Holloway will now have to find a new way of getting the same results without his dynamic midfield general.\n<\/p>\n
\n Holloway has moved between a midfield two and three at different points this season, and still has James Ball and Darren Oldaker available as natural midfielders to fill the gap left in midfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FA have confirmed that Clarke will receive a seven-match suspension and a fine of \u00a32,750 following a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-325260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}