The FA have revealed shocking details behind Swindon Town captain Ollie Clarke’s seven-match ban and £2,750 fine.
The governing body published their findings after a Cardiff City player was left ‘very emotional and struggling to speak’ by Clarke’s ‘highly invasive’ and ‘violating’ acts.
Clarke, 33, was found to have committed highly violating acts of foul play on two opponents (who remain anonymous) during the game on August 12 last year, once in the 57th minute and again in the 94th minute.
One of the victims was described by the referee Elliot Bell of approaching him ‘visibly upset’ to tell him about what had happened.
Bell included the detail in his official match report and an Independent Regulatory Commission heard evidence from the Swindon captain. Clarke admitted the charges in the hearing and gave explanations for them, arguing that both incidents were unintentional – a claim rejected by the panel.
There was ‘no plausible explanation’ for Clarke’s behaviour, said the panel, insisting that ‘touching an opponent’s private body parts during a game’, especially when the ball was out of play, was a ‘highly invasive, intrusive and violating’ act.
They described the incidents as ‘extremely serious and unusual’.
His seven-match ban was confirmed last month and the FA have now released their detailed findings.
The stunned and shaken reaction of one of the victims was factored in when Clarke’s punishment was determined.
‘In respect of Charge 1, the Commission considered the actions of the Player to be highly violating and intentional foul play,’ the written reasons stated.
It continued: ‘In respect of Charge 2, the Commission considered the actions of the Player to, again, be highly violating and intentional foul play, with the further aggravated factor of the incident occurring 37 minutes after the first incident within the same match.’
‘The indecency of this action requires an immediate sporting sanction of no less than six matches,’ they surmised.
‘Taking both incidents together, the panel applied a starting point of nine matches before reducing the punishment to seven under the principle of totality.’
In response to the written reasons, Swindon released a statement on the club website. It read: ‘Swindon Town Football Club acknowledges the written reasons published by the FA in respect of Ollie Clarke, following the recent Regulatory Commission decision.
‘Throughout the process, Ollie Clarke maintained his innocence and only admitted the charges on the basis that both charges were unintentional.
‘The club continues to support Ollie and will do so moving forward. Swindon Town Football Club will be making no further comment at this time.’
After the hearing, Swindon manager Ian Holloway had raged that the ban was ‘ridiculous’ and defended Clarke as being a ‘hard-working and aggressive’ player.
He told the Swindon Advertiser last month: ‘It’s actually a ridiculous amount of games compared to some of the other things I’ve seen in football throughout my time.
‘I don’t understand how it’s taken this long to deal with it, and our process of talking to them and appealing and all that is absolute nonsense.
‘I feel for Ollie, and the lads do,’ he added. ‘He’s honest, hard-working and aggressive — what more do you need? But is he overly aggressive? I don’t think so.’
