Ian Holloway has his say on Swindon’s expulsion from the EFL Trophy and the fallout which has followed from the decision.
“I’d like everyone out there to make their own mind up”
Ian Holloway has been speaking to the media about Swindon Town’s expulsion from the Vertu Trophy and the fallout from that decision 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/WbvF2J2Hnl
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) February 6, 2026
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. 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? 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, it’s not, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not, 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.
Yeah. 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.