'Our role is integral to football's future' - football oversight chief the new chairman
The team's current difficulties represent a a "serious issue" and the football regulator is aiming to acquire authority to examine team situations in comparable cases, the newly appointed chairman David Kogan has stated.
During an extensive discussion, the regulator, who was appointed on Monday, expressed "sympathy" towards Wednesday's fanbase.
The chairman convened with four fan organizations representing the South Yorkshire club this week.
The team have been struggling on and off the field in this season, with the club failing to pay players on time on five separate occasions, including in September.
"Evidently Wednesday represents a serious issue for football authorities and a significant problem for football," Kogan told.
"Wednesday stands as one of the great brands for the English game and in recent days we have met supporters' organizations.
"Our aim is to acquire the ability... which will allow us to have the club and similar situations referred to us if they warrant scrutiny and addressed."
Financial Struggles and Ownership Situation
The team's struggling chairman the Thai businessman stated during the off-season he would be willing to sell up at their home ground, but he has not been able to secure a deal with potential new owners.
Failure to pay player wages on time in March and May caused limitations by the league officials in mid-year, preventing the club from carrying out any transfers or loans for the following recruitment periods, although those limitations were removed in late summer.
Authority's Position
Kogan said: "Our role exists to serve the Owls followers, other clubs in similar situations where supporters are loyal to a regional establishment that has represented their community in numerous instances.
"I fully appreciate the club's situation, as I do for every team that over recent decades have faced collapse, or been close to going to the wall, for causes separate from the followers."
Questioned about whether the authority might compel an proprietor to divest a club if they are deemed unsuitable, the chairman responded: "When asking whether 'would we intervene in the final instance?', the answer is once we assemble the facts and know what's going on, we will."
But the regulator clarified that requiring chairmen to relinquish clubs would be considered the final option and the authority would rather to work with them.
"The last thing what we want to do is begin intervening in an particular organization, an individual owner, without being able to work with that chairman to fix the issues that the club's facing and the proprietor's dealing with," the regulator explained.
"But the truth is, when you review the record of the game, over the past few decades there have been certain proprietors, a small minority, but certain individuals who have acted carelessly in the manner they have operated their organizations and finally don't wish to take responsibility for the future."
Wednesday followers have been voicing opposition to the team's chairman during the current campaign
'If we get it wrong, extraordinary progress vanishes'
The chairman convened with officials from numerous teams to lay out the remit of the regulator on Wednesday and maintained it represented a "progressive gathering" with a "high level of engagement" from the National League to the Premier League.
"This position carries substantial significance, because if errors are made, if the sport makes errors, the remarkable development accomplished might evaporate incredibly quickly," Kogan said.
"And that's what nobody wants in the terms of English football is a huge success story - we've got to keep it going.
"Substantial financial resources coming into football and has come into football for the recent generations, because there are no assurances it will continue to come into football, which is part of the rationale behind 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 concerns about detrimental effects on the Premier League's sporting equality, but the regulator stated: "I completely endorse the achievement and development as an economic entity of the elite league.
"Being fully aware of the concern of undermining the division as a high-quality offering of this country. But at the same time, if you engage with division representatives after the recent gathering, they would have had a high level of reassurance -and, indeed, they have been advising us privately they have a high level of reassurance."
Partisan Associations
Kogan is still facing a "thorough examination" by the Commissioner for Public Appointments after he disclosed making donations to the opposition group in the past.
The 68-year-old provided financial support for Culture Secretary 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 parliamentary committee confirmed my selection," the regulator explained.
"I currently have no participation in any sort of politics."
