'Our role is integral to football's future' - newly appointed regulator the regulator's chair
Sheffield Wednesday's ongoing struggles are seen as a "serious issue" and the football regulator is aiming to acquire authority to investigate clubs in such situations, the recently named head the regulator has stated.
In a wide-ranging interview, the chairman, who was appointed on Monday, expressed "sympathy" towards the club's followers.
The regulator engaged with four supporters' associations connected to the football team recently.
The football club have been struggling on and off the field in 2025, with the club failing to pay players on time on several different times, including in the autumn.
"Evidently Wednesday represents a major concern for the league and a significant problem for football," the regulator explained.
"Wednesday stands as one of the iconic names for football in England and recently we have met Sheffield Wednesday supporters' groups.
"We're now looking to get powers... which will permit us to bring Wednesday and comparable cases referred to us if they warrant scrutiny and addressed."
Monetary Issues and Leadership Concerns
The club's controversial proprietor Dejphon Chansiri indicated in the summer he would be open to selling the club at their home ground, but he has failed to complete a sale with interested parties.
Delayed salary payments on time in spring months caused limitations by the football authorities in June, stopping Wednesday from completing any player acquisitions for the next three transfer windows, although those limitations were removed in the end of the transfer window.
Official's Viewpoint
The chairman stated: "The job [of the regulator] is there for the Owls followers, teams facing challenges where people are committed to a local institution that has represented their community in many cases.
"I have absolute sympathy for the club's situation, as I do for every team that in modern times have encountered failure, or approached financial ruin, for reasons that have nothing to do with the fans themselves."
Inquired if the authority might compel an owner to sell a club if they are considered unfit, the regulator answered: "Should the inquiry concern 'would we intervene in the final instance?', the answer is once we collect the information and know what's going on, we will."
But Kogan stressed that forcing owners to sell clubs would be considered the final option and the regulator would prefer to collaborate with owners.
"Our least desirable course of action is commence engagement with an individual club, an particular chairman, without having the opportunity to collaborate with that chairman to fix the problems affecting the organization and the owner's facing," the chairman stated.
"However, realistically, when you review the record of the game, over the recent generations there have been certain proprietors, few in number, but particular people who have shown negligence in the way which they've been managing their teams and eventually decline to assume obligation for the coming years."
Wednesday followers have been voicing opposition to the current proprietor during the current campaign
'If we get it wrong, extraordinary progress vanishes'
The chairman convened with delegates from multiple organizations to explain the responsibilities of the authority recently and maintained it represented a "proactive meeting" with a "high level of engagement" from the lower divisions to the top flight.
"It's a job that's actually really important, because should mistakes occur, if the football community fails, the significant advances achieved might evaporate incredibly quickly," Kogan said.
"This represents everyone's worst fear in the realm of domestic football is a major achievement - we need to continue the progress.
"Considerable investment entering the sport and has been channeled for the last 20 or 25 years, because there's no guarantee it will keep flowing into the sport, which is part of the rationale behind I think we have to adopt a precise perspective on risk and of course, of the next two or three years."
Premier League Concerns
Top flight officials resisted the establishment of an oversight body because of apprehensions regarding adverse consequences on the Premier League's sporting equality, but the chairman responded: "I'm absolutely committed to the prosperity and expansion as an commercial operation 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 talk to the Premier League after this week's discussion, they would have had a high level of reassurance -and, in fact, they have been telling us in private they have a high level of reassurance."
Ideological Links
Kogan is still facing a "thorough examination" by the public appointments commissioner after he acknowledged providing funds to the opposition group in the past.
The 68-year-old contributed funds to Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport the minister's leadership bid, along with that of the current Prime Minister.
"I have been entirely transparent regarding my past party membership [with Labour], and that ideological connection terminated the day the select committee approved my appointment," Kogan said.
"I currently have no participation in any sort of politics."
