'Our role is integral to football's future' - newly appointed regulator the regulator's chair
Sheffield Wednesday's current difficulties represent a a "serious issue" and the new football authority is seeking powers to examine team situations in similar circumstances, the recently named head the regulator has announced.
In a wide-ranging interview, the chairman, who was appointed on Monday, expressed "sympathy" towards Wednesday's fanbase.
The regulator engaged with four supporter groups connected to the Championship side recently.
The Championship side have been struggling on and off the field in the current year, with the club missing wage payments on multiple instances, including in September.
"Obviously the club has become a major concern for the league and a major challenge for the sport," the regulator explained.
"Wednesday stands as one of the historic institutions for the English game and recently we have met supporters' organizations.
"We are seeking authority... which will enable us to take Wednesday and comparable cases submitted for our review if they warrant scrutiny and addressed."
Monetary Issues and Leadership Concerns
The team's struggling chairman the Thai businessman suggested earlier this year he would be open to selling the club at the stadium, but he has been unable to finalize an agreement with interested parties.
Delayed salary payments on time in earlier this year caused limitations by the English Football League (EFL) in mid-year, preventing the club from carrying out any transfers or loans for the following recruitment periods, although those limitations were removed in August.
Official's Viewpoint
The regulator explained: "The job [of the regulator] is there for the Owls followers, teams facing challenges where supporters are loyal to a local institution that has represented their community in many cases.
"I fully appreciate the club's situation, as I do for all the clubs that in modern times have encountered failure, or been close to going to the wall, for reasons that have nothing to do with the supporters."
Questioned about whether the oversight body could require an chairman to relinquish a club if they are deemed unsuitable, Kogan said: "If your question is 'would we intervene in the final instance?', the reply is once we collect the information and know what's going on, we will."
But the chairman emphasized that forcing owners to sell clubs would be considered the final option and the authority would rather to collaborate with owners.
"The last thing what we want to do is commence engagement with an specific team, an specific proprietor, without being in a position to cooperate with that chairman to fix the issues that the club's facing and the owner's facing," Kogan said.
"But the truth is, when you examine the past of football, over the last 20 or 30 years there have been certain proprietors, a small minority, but particular people who have shown negligence in the manner they have operated their teams and eventually decline to assume obligation for the coming years."
Owls fans have been protesting against the team's chairman in recent months
'Errors may undo substantial development'
The regulator engaged officials from numerous teams to lay out the remit of the authority recently and stated it constituted a "proactive meeting" with a "substantial involvement" from the lower divisions to the top flight.
"The role holds considerable importance, because should mistakes occur, if the world of football gets it wrong, the extraordinary progress that's been made could disappear rapidly," the regulator warned.
"This represents everyone's worst fear in the terms of English football is a major achievement - we must maintain momentum.
"Substantial financial resources coming into football and has been channeled for the past two decades, because there's no guarantee it will persist in entering the game, which is one of the reasons why I think we have to adopt a precise perspective on challenges and obviously, of the coming seasons."
Top Flight Apprehensions
Top flight officials resisted the creation of a regulator because of apprehensions regarding adverse consequences on the elite division's competitive balance, but the regulator stated: "I completely endorse the prosperity and expansion as an commercial operation of the elite league.
"As someone who appreciates the concern of undermining the top flight as an elite competition of the nation. But concurrently, if you engage with division representatives after today's meeting, they would have had a high level of reassurance -and, indeed, they have been informing us confidentially they have a significant confidence."
Ideological Links
The regulator remains subject to a "full inquiry" by the public appointments commissioner after he acknowledged providing funds to the Labour Party in the past.
The chairman provided financial support for Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport the minister's leadership bid, along with that of the government leader.
"I have fully disclosed my past party membership [with Labour], and that political affiliation came to an end the day the select committee approved my appointment," the regulator explained.
"I am no longer involved in any sort of politics."
