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Ian Holloway has his say on Swindon’s expulsion from EFL Trophy and fallout from the decision

Ian Holloway has his say on Swindon’s expulsion from the EFL Trophy and the fallout which has followed from the decision.

Earlier this week the club were removed from the competition and fined (with part suspended) for fielding two ineligible players, captain Ollie Clarke (who was under suspension) and Aaron Drinan, in their earlier win over Luton Town, who have been reinstated.

After a lengthy phone call with PGMOL’s Howard Webb, the Swindon boss stressed the importance of thoroughly examining the reasons behind what occurred rather than simply assigning blame.

EFL STATEMENT:

An Independent Disciplinary Commission has determined that Swindon Town Football Club is to be removed from this season’s Vertu Trophy competition for breaches of EFL Regulations and EFL Trophy Rules.

The Club has also been issued with a fine of £40,000, of which £20,000 will be suspended and which will be automatically payable if the Club fields or names on a team sheet an ineligible player before the end of the 2026/27 season.

The breaches relate to the Club fielding two ineligible players against Luton Town in the Vertu Trophy Round of 16 tie on 13 January 2026. Swindon Town won the game 2-1.

The Club played Oliver Clarke, who was serving a seven-game suspension from the Football Association. In addition, Aaron Drinan, who started the second half of the tie, was not named on the official team sheet.

As a result of the decision, Luton Town will progress into the Vertu Trophy Quarter-Final, where they will host Plymouth Argyle.

The date of the tie will be confirmed in the next 48 hours and will now not take place on Tuesday 10 February 2026 as originally scheduled following a request from Plymouth Argyle earlier today.

The full decision and written reasons will be published on EFL.com in due course.

CLUB STATEMENT:

Swindon Town Football Club is deeply disappointed by the Independent Disciplinary Commission’s decision to remove the Club from this season’s Vertu Trophy.

We strongly believe this outcome is unfair and do not agree with the findings. That said, we respect the disciplinary process and the authority of the Commission.

Right now, our focus has to be on moving forward together as a football club. We will take time to reflect, learn from what has happened, and make sure we continue to meet the highest standards in everything we do.

Above all, our priority remains with our players, staff, and supporters. We will keep backing them fully as we push on and compete with everything we have in our remaining fixtures this season.

Interviewer: “Has it been explained to you either by the FA or by Howard Webb what the main reason, because expulsion is quite a disproportionate punishment as you say, was it the Aaron Drinan situation or the Ollie Clark situation?”

Ian: “They haven’t let us know yet, we’re waiting for it in writing.”

Interviewer: “Because Aaron Drinan seems like…”

Ian: “Have they done it yet? No, we still don’t know.”

Interviewer: “Aaron Drinan seems like an honest mistake as you say. Ollie Clark, they could point the finger and say we should have known that he was still suspended.”

Ian: “It said on their portal and they admitted liability for that and they said we should have checked the handbook and we should have made a call.

“The whole portal thing was brought in so you don’t have to check the handbook and you don’t have to make the call.

“So for them to actually say it was our fault and yeah, which they did, they still then blamed us again.

“So it’s the same thing. Football needs a failsafe, so if that goes wrong, that happens.

“And the way we used to do things is obviously changing and I’m fine with that when it’s all ironed out, smoothed out.

“How do I feel about it? It’s so true, it’s a knockout competition, so what should it be?

“And I’m glad I’m not in charge of it because I would have hated to have had to sort this mess out. Because it is a mess.

“I stood there and I saw the referees and the linesmen going… 8looks around*… and people were shouting to me in their earpiece, get the game going! Or do you want me to take him off then?

“It was like, I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know there was a problem, you know? And to be honest with you, reading a portal, that someone’s job is to press the right button and do that, and it comes up, when you press that button, it comes up with what games you can play in.

“And if that’s not the same as the handbook, then that shouldn’t have been pressed. There’s another button he should have pressed. He’s admitted he didn’t. So how is that our fault then?

“But it’s nothing to do with me. I can only deal with the fallout. And I’m trying to be as honest as I can, trying to be as calculated as I can, trying not to trip myself up because I know how this works for as many years.

“And all I wanted us to all do, every single one of us, was to not look for blame, to make the game better than it was the other evening. And do I feel that’s happened? No, I don’t really, right?

“Because I felt we were too focused on the who can we blame? Who’s going to go through? Who’s going to do this? It was a selfish thing rather than what went wrong? How did that happen? What can we do about that? How can we make that better?

“Because everybody who bought a ticket has wasted their money, in my opinion. A result has happened. That result should be, and then it makes a mockery of it. I understand that.”

Interviewer: “As you said, you’ve been in English football for 46 years and you love the game. We all do. As a general rule, is there too much red tape at the moment?

“Pep Guardiola was saying this week that he doesn’t understand how he signed two players a week apart. One can play in a cup final, one can’t. Is there too much administration, too much red tape?”

Ian: “My job is to take my team somewhere, where the game is. Try and tell everybody what my team is. That’d be nice.

“I used to, that’d be totally my responsibility before. I’d go like that, there you go, right? Can’t go wrong. Now, it’s all changed. Can’t do that. Have you seen me with a computer? Oh my God. Honestly.

“Can you turn that on for me? I mean, I’m not, that’s not me either. I watch the Terminator. I’m scared of them. So, no problem. Let’s move forward.

“But sometimes when you move forward, you end up going backwards.

“What are you going to do about that then? And while you’re adjusting, you have to be ready to make some adaptions. All I can do is move on.

“But if anybody thinks for one minute that they can find me or do, from what I’m actually saying now, I’d like everybody out there to make their own mind up. Right? You think I’m mad? You think I’m this?

“Well, I think that’s what I would do if it’s a knockout competition. You could say that, oh, he’s being… no, I’m not. I’m just being absolutely matter of fact.

“The time this has taken for this, that team lost, this team won, but we can’t let them go through. To me, it’s pretty obvious. On you go.

“And is that lost of revenue or not? Who knows? Who knows? But whoa. Don’t make sense to me.

“It’s first time it’s ever happened. It’s all new ground. Let’s see what happens.

“And hopefully we can put some protocols in that it doesn’t happen again in the future. And I wish it wasn’t me.

“But that’s probably why you’re here. If I’m being brutally honest, I haven’t seen you at one of my talks before.

“And people, we’re junkies for news, aren’t we? And is it good news? No, we’re all over it, aren’t we? So maybe I should have saved it for my next book, if that many people clicked on it last week.”

Ian Holloway on the EFL’s decision, per Swindon Advertiser:

“Yeah, I did say things along the lines that I was half expecting, but in my 46 years of being in this wonderful game, that Tuesday night was probably the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s a total calamity of errors, with new initiatives being forced this year that has led to the team sheep being wrong with my club secretary, she’s been completely and utterly, in my opinion, thrown under the bus.

“There’s fail safes that were there before, with the old system where I physically write down my team and it’s copied onto three other ones underneath. So I have the original copy. I’m writing their names and their numbers down. I pass one copy of that that stays in the book. One goes to the opposition manager, one goes to the referee and one goes to the media. There’s a new initiative brought in this season that we go digital. So I don’t do that. My IT lads do that. We got ours right on the socials, but the one we got wrong was a typo, a type error, because my club Secretary actually hit the wrong number.

“If the referee, which is now been changed, to if the referee has the duty to make sure that I can check my team. I just spoke to Howard Webb. We have learned from this, and we’re going to make sure that that’s definitely his [the referee’s] responsibility. I would have been shown my team, and I could have saved Alisha’s mistake there.

“I haven’t done anything as a football manager to cheat. I haven’t got someone out of the stand and got him re changed at half time. That’s cheating, isn’t it? My sub was sat there completely and utterly with his kit on. Taffazoli was in the stand. So when we then put him in at half time and he was allowed to come on, I have never seen such a shambles in my life, right? And then we end up getting stopped. The game stops for eight minutes where the referees and the fourth officials and the linesman have had it pointed out by their bench. ‘Oh, he’s not on the team sheet.’

“It’s my most embarrassing thing. I’m so proud of English football, British football. I’ve been in it 46 years, and never have I seen such a calamity.  People say I had a rant. I didn’t. I’m emotional. I love the passion that this game gives me. I’m very, very proud of English football, and we’ve got to look at ourselves, right? And so my team had two people that shouldn’t have been technically on there.

“The team sheet thing, I can prove is not our fault. I didn’t cheat. It should have been checked. We’ve managed to get something in to change that. It’s not who, who, who are we aiming at? It should be what went wrong, why it went wrong, and reasons to change it for the future. You cannot have Luton supporters turning up and Swindon supporters turning up to a game of such importance, and your administrative team and the referees and the Football Association bear the brunt of it, because it was a joke. Let’s look at it honestly and fairly and make sure everybody carries the can.

“The whole thing, in my opinion, has been looked at in the wrong light. We have been looking for who, who, who to blame instead of how, and what to do to make it better. Luckily, Howard Webb has been conversing with me. We’ve made up a new rule to make sure that his referee, who wasn’t charged with anything now will be totally responsible for stopping the admin error that this new directive, that is being trialled this year, made, because not all football grounds are equipped with good enough technical stuff to pick up emails all the time, and internets all the time. If you go to that, every ground has to change.

“Luton’s, it’s online, you can look at it. They were having trouble with theirs. They were having trouble. So the old system would have worked a treat. I would have known what my team was. I knew what my team was. I’m shocked by it. Aaron Drinan, shocked by it. ‘You’re not supposed to be on.’ So, that deals with the Aaron Drinan one, doesn’t it? Absolutely. People need to understand why I was, I wouldn’t even say angry, I was emotive, emotions. That’s what life’s all about. That’s what football brings you. That’s what I live for. 46 years of this.

“So the next charge we’ve got from the FA was Ollie Clarke, who we knew had a ban for seven games, and now these games, it was a category deficiency that we fell apart on the portal said he could play. Other games were named that he couldn’t play in. So what they’ve said, ‘you got that wrong. You should have checked because we can’t trust the portal. The portal is new this year. You should have checked by the handbook.’ So this is Alisha again. You should have checked the handbook, and you should have called just to make sure.

“So my point is, Aaron Drinan, if the referee would have shown me the team sheet like we used to, he’d have been on there. I haven’t signed him from Real Madrid and disguised him as somebody else. Have I? I call that cheating. I haven’t put him in the stand, thinking, I don’t really care about this game. I’ve actually sat him on the bench, and I plan to bring him on at halftime. And the fourth official is the only one who’s taken a wall up because he should have checked it with the team sheet. And if he couldn’t have the team sheet, how could he check it? Who’s fault is that? Is that his or is that Luton’s?

“But all I will say, Luton made sure at the end of the game that the referee left the building with both sets of teams written down just to prove their point. Why wasn’t he give that at the start so everything would have been fine?

“So I can prove that the portal was wrong, which they owned up to, and they gave her two fail safes that she should have followed. I could have solved the Aaron Drinan if we did the previous system like I’ve been doing for 20 odd years, I would have been able to change that. So Aaron Drinan is done, and so is it’s the same reasoning, but apparently we got it wrong both times. We’re the only ones who got it wrong both times, and now we’ve been thrown out at a tournament which has never happened before.

“So what I’m trying to say, okay, the integrity of this competition is vital for me, right? As a human being, we are above every other species because of our communication skills and our cooperation. I was expecting this to be an examination of what we can all do to not let this embarrassment happen again, ever. Luckily, Howard Webb is with me, right?

“So you want my feelings on it, my most embarrassing day in football, English football is my life. Always has been, always will be. And I think I’ve carried the flag with passion, with love of the game. Sometimes I’ve let it go over the top, but I think I you over. I understand I’m Marmite. I don’t expect to be liked by everybody, but I don’t really care. I think that you know that is what it is, but I am not having anybody tell me what I can say, not ever. And the systems that are sometimes used to decide these things, they should focus on why and what happened, not who did that right.

“I believe the tournament now is tarnished. The winners of this game, I can prove why we didn’t do it deliberately. Nothing was deliberate. We are now not allowed through and the people who lost the game are put through. Has that ever happened before? No, I think Plymouth should get a free game into the semi-final. If I’m Luton, I wouldn’t want to play after we’ve lost. Whatever happened there. And so do I agree and do I accept what they’ve done and how they’ve done it? I’m going to have to, that’s what happens in football. But do I agree with it? They will never get me to agree with it, not in a million years.

“And this goes back to something that happened when I was in the Premier League. I was the only manager to be fined for putting a team out that had been sanctioned. I had to pass over my 25, I had to give in 25 names at the start of the season, and they had to be approved. Out of that 25, I selected 11, and I put however many on the bench. I was given a fine for playing a weakened team, £25,000. Why didn’t they say you can’t submit those 11 back then? Why am I the only manager in the world? Now I’m not going to take it personally, because I can.

“I’m embarrassed for the Swindon fans, but I don’t want my club Secretary being blamed for it, and I’m sorry, I think she is. I think she’s carrying an awful thing, and she doesn’t deserve that. I should have been the one, because it’s my team. I should be allowed to write it. I would have been then responsible. That’s the pleasure that it gives me and the power that it gives me to have the say over Swindon Town. Why is my club Secretary having to bear the burden of all of this when there are so many other things that weren’t quite right?

“And to top that, I don’t know if I should mention this, but I think I’m going to, because words are really important to me. I was told that in the meeting that we were faced yesterday, I wasn’t in it, but Anthony and my club secretary said, somebody said your manager showed no remorse. Now I’m saying remorse means I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve caused. Why would I have to show remorse? I could have solved this. Why should I be remorseful?  I offered to take Aaron off. I offered to. I did what I could do. Everything was above board, but there were mistakes made. Got no problem with that. What about everybody else? Where are you now?

“The portal. You admitted there’s a problem, but you still gave my player another ban. So it is what it is, and am I unravelling? No, I’m not. I know exactly what I’m doing. I know exactly what I’m saying, and I’ve got 17 games left. In fact, it’ll make sure we know where we’re going now. We know what we got to do. We know how many of them we’ve got to win. And I’m totally and utterly focused on that. Am I disappointed? I can’t tell you how disappointed I am. I’ve never got this far in this tournament. I was very proud of our team and the performances that we put in the teams that we’d already beat, and all of that’s worth nothing.”

On the players’ reaction:

“It’s a good question, considering, this is the one off, isn’t it? I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never won a game before and then been told this and have it hang over me to take so long to get to the point of it that, ‘oh, you’re not in it,’ because it’s never happened before. So what I’ve done is asked them what they think I should do, and I think I’ve done what I needed to do. I’ve said what I feel rather than be silenced. No one’s tried to silence me, but in the way that they go about things, that could happen, I am not being silenced. I think I’ve said what I think is fair. I will now wish Luton all the very best in the next round. But do I truthfully think they should be there? No, I don’t know. And you can all make your own assumption on it. Hopefully there that’s more information now that you can assess what is all the way about they’re on about. ‘They put two players who should…’ No, no, no. It was written on a portal, and the FA got it wrong, but we should have checked. That’s fine. I get that, but why didn’t the referee show me my team sheet? I haven’t seen my team sheet. It was written, right? So all of these things are just genuine, genuine errors on a night of so many errors, and we’re the only ones who’ve lost anything, and so it’s, for me, it’s so bad that what doesn’t make sense is you’ve lost in a cup competition, which is a knockout competition, and you still get put through.

“If I’m Plymouth, I’m not happy with that. What if they go on and win it? What does that do to the competition? This competition is categorised as a lesser competition because the young lads have been put in it, and I know in the past, that has been a bit of a problem for everybody. But the way West Ham kids played against us this year, I loved it. I thought they showed some fire, wow. You know, they need a bit of this. Under-21s football is a joke, and they really gave a performance.

“So, I get it, I get it, and it’s not always the easiest tournament ever. Other people leave it and we don’t. I tried to go as strong as I could, to try and do well in it, and we were two games away from Wembley, however you cut it. And have we cheated? It feels like we’ve cheated, and that’s not fair. And I don’t want people out there thinking that we did, and I don’t want my club Secretary feeling like she does. So I’d like to be able to say you should have given me the opportunity to stop half of these problems. You’ve had a go at your fourth official. He’s been suspended for two weeks. From now on, your referee should show me my team sheet, so I know what it is.

“Why can’t I do it? How I’ve done it for 20 years? Why have we got this new directive that’s not working? Why have you brought VAR in and it wasn’t working very well, but you’ve stuck with it. These are all the questions that English football supporters should be asking, and we should be able to talk about, and we should have an opinion. And you now know my opinion, whether you like it, whether you don’t, at least I’ll give you something to talk about, because I’m not going to sit here and say I can’t say anything. No one stops me talking. No one.”

Ian Holloway on his complaint to the LMA:

“Absolutely. If anyone is going to sort me out for anything that I’ve said, it is the FA and I spoke to them, and they know exactly what I’m like, and they know exactly what I did, and they won’t be able to charge me with a thing. And is there anything I’ve said today which they’ll be able to charge me with? I don’t think so, because I’ve spoken from here [taps his heart], and I’ve taken responsibility for what I believe we should be doing as a body of of it such an importance.

“How important is the EFL to people in England, Great Britain? How important is it? How proud should we be of our game? Wow, I am, always have been, always will be, certainly proud of Swindon. And I’m tired because I did a gig last night with him for the Rotary Club. Didn’t even know I could auction things. Made five grand. There was an Eskimo in there, I sold them a fridge, so I haven’t lost it.”

On Luton’s role:

“Wouldn’t you if you were Luton? The whole world is about me, me, me, let’s see, isn’t it? I can’t talk about that. This is nothing to do with me and Luton. Good luck to them, whatever they do. It’s nothing to do with me and loot. This is to do with me, Swindon, and the authorities. You shouldn’t ask me about some other club that I don’t work for. It’s nothing to do with me, is it?

“How do I feel about it? It’s a knockout competition. So what should it be? Yeah, and I’m glad I’m not in charge of it, because I would hate to have had to sort this mess out, because it is a mess. I stood there, and I saw the referees and the linesmen going and people were shouting at them in their earpiece, ‘Get the game going.’ Do you want me to take him off? Then it was like I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know there was a problem.

“To be honest with you, reading a portal that someone’s job is to press the right button and do that, and it comes up when you press that button. It comes up with what games you can play in. And if that’s not the same as the handbook, then that shouldn’t have been pressed. There’s another button he should have pressed. He’s admitted he didn’t. So how is that our fault then?

“But it’s nothing to do with me. I can only deal with the fallout, and I’m trying to be as honest as I can, trying to be as calculated as I can, try not to trip myself up, because I know how this works, for as many years, and all I wanted us to all do, every single one of us, was to not look for blame, to make the game better than it was the other evening. And do I feel that’s happened? No, I don’t really, because I felt we were too focused on who can we blame? Who’s going to go through? Who’s going to do this? It was a selfish thing, rather than what went wrong. How did that happen? What can we do about that? How can we make that better? Because everybody who bought a ticket has wasted their money, in my opinion, a result has happened.

“That result should be and then it makes a mockery of it. I understand that.”

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