The club's appeal against the red card shown to Ian Henderson in Monday’s League 1 fixture with Wigan Athletic has been unsuccessful.
It means Henderson will miss Dale’s next four fixtures – Doncaster Rovers, Peterborough United, Blackpool and Gillingham.
Dale Chief Executive Colin Garlick commented: “We’re extremely disappointed with the outcome. We believed we had a genuine case of appeal.
“We believe the punishment handed to Ian is unjust when you take into account the yellow card received by Jason Pearce for his actions.
“The challenge on Ian is from behind and excessive, and in my opinion warranted a red card. If the referee doesn’t send Pearce off for the initial challenge, then Ian should not be dismissed. For me, it has to be two yellow cards or two red cards, and if any one player is getting a red card it should be Pearce.
“With that in mind, we asked the FA to take wrongful dismissal into account, which was rejected. We then objected to the excessiveness of Ian’s punishment, which was also unsuccessful.
"The appeal process would only deal with the actions of Ian Henderson but I think most “football people” would agree that taking this incident as a whole, Pearce is the one who should be serving a ban.”