'We will play a key role in football's future' - football oversight chief the regulator's chair
The Championship club's current difficulties represent a a "major concern" and the football regulator is seeking powers to look into club affairs in comparable cases, its new chair David Kogan has declared.
In a wide-ranging interview, the chairman, who was recently selected, voiced concern towards supporters of the Owls.
The regulator engaged with four fan organizations connected to the South Yorkshire club in recent days.
The Championship side have been struggling on and off the field in this season, with the club missing wage payments on five separate occasions, including in last month.
"Clearly Sheffield Wednesday has been a major concern for the league and a significant problem for football," the chairman stated.
"Sheffield Wednesday is one of the iconic names for the English game and recently we have met Sheffield Wednesday supporters' groups.
"Our aim is to acquire the ability... which will allow us to have the club and similar situations submitted for our review if they warrant scrutiny and dealt with."
Monetary Issues and Leadership Concerns
The team's struggling chairman the current owner indicated in the summer he would be willing to sell up at Hillsborough, but he has failed to complete a sale with interested parties.
Failure to pay player wages on time in spring months resulted in restrictions being imposed by the football authorities in mid-year, stopping Wednesday from completing any player acquisitions for the following recruitment periods, although those limitations were removed in the end of the transfer window.
Authority's Position
The regulator explained: "The job [of the regulator] is there for the Owls followers, other clubs in similar situations where fans are dedicated to a local institution that has represented their community in multiple situations.
"I fully appreciate the team's plight, as I do for each organization that over recent decades have faced collapse, or nearly ceased operations, for causes separate from the fans themselves."
When asked if the authority might compel an owner to sell a club if they are judged inappropriate, the regulator answered: "When asking whether 'would we intervene in the final instance?', the response would be once we assemble the facts and understand the situation, we will."
But Kogan stressed that requiring chairmen to relinquish clubs would be considered the final option and the authority would rather to collaborate with owners.
"The final option we would consider is start getting involved with an particular organization, an individual owner, without having the opportunity to collaborate with that chairman to fix the issues that the club's facing and the owner's facing," the chairman stated.
"In actuality, when you review the record of the game, over the last 20 or 30 years there have been some owners, a small minority, but particular people who have shown negligence in the approach they have taken toward their clubs and ultimately don't wish to take responsibility for the future."
Wednesday followers have been protesting against the team's chairman during the current campaign
'Mistakes could erase significant advances'
Kogan met with officials from numerous teams to detail the scope of the oversight body this week and insisted it was a "proactive meeting" with a "substantial involvement" from the National League to the Premier League.
"It's a job that's actually really important, because if we get it wrong, if the football community fails, the extraordinary progress that's been made could disappear incredibly quickly," the chairman stated.
"This represents everyone's worst fear in the realm of domestic football is a major achievement - we've got to keep it going.
"There's an enormous amount of money entering the sport and has come into football for the recent generations, because there's no guarantee it will continue to come into football, which is one of the reasons why I think we have to maintain a focused outlook on risk and of course, of the next two or three years."
Elite Division Worries
Top flight officials resisted the creation of a regulator because of fears of a negative impact on the top-flight's competitiveness, but Kogan said: "I'm absolutely committed to the prosperity and expansion as an economic entity of the elite league.
"Being fully aware of the worry about compromising the division as a high-quality offering of England. But simultaneously, if you engage with division representatives after today's meeting, they would have had a high level of reassurance -and, in fact, they have been advising us privately they have a significant confidence."
Partisan Associations
The chairman continues to confront a "thorough examination" by the official appointments authority after he acknowledged providing funds to the Labour Party in the past.
The official contributed funds to government minister the minister's leadership bid, along with that of the government leader.
"I've been completely open about my former ideological connection [with Labour], and that political affiliation came to an end the day the parliamentary committee confirmed my selection," Kogan said.
"I am presently disconnected from any sort of politics."
