The other issue was his goal celebration, where he ran the length of the pitch and taunted the Arsenal fans. He was rightly booked for that, and it was clear why he was booked. Mark Hughes was told by the fourth official that he'd been booked for the way he celebrated.
But that was a problem, as he couldn't then be subject to retrospective action for it. As you said, Ian Watmore was the FA Chief Exec and an Arsenal fan, and went on 5 Live on the Sunday morning saying Adebayor would face further punishment. I was at a meeting at City on the Monday night and they told us the story, which was that Clattenburg changed his report to say Adebayor was booked for time wasting, in complete contravention to what Hughes had been told by Clattenburg, via the fourth official.
I assume there was some back room deal done, whereby Adebayor got a suspended ban for that and we agreed not to push the duplicity.