'We will play a key role in football's future' - independent football regulator the regulator's chair
The Championship club's persistent issues constitute a "significant problem" and the new football authority is seeking powers to investigate clubs in such situations, the recently named head the official has declared.
Through a comprehensive talk, the chairman, who was appointed on Monday, voiced concern towards Wednesday's fanbase.
Kogan met with four supporters' associations representing the South Yorkshire club in recent days.
The Championship side have been facing challenges both on and off the pitch in 2025, with the club missing wage payments on five separate occasions, including in last month.
"Evidently Wednesday represents a significant problem for EFL and a substantial concern for English football," Kogan told.
"Sheffield Wednesday is one of the great brands for English football and recently we have met Sheffield Wednesday supporters' groups.
"We are seeking authority... which will allow us to have Wednesday and comparable cases submitted for our review if they need to be investigated and dealt with."
Financial Struggles and Proprietorship Status
The team's struggling chairman the Thai businessman indicated in the summer he would be open to selling the club at Hillsborough, but he has been unable to finalize an agreement with potential new owners.
Failure to pay player wages on time in March and May led to sanctions by the English Football League (EFL) in mid-year, preventing the club from carrying out any player acquisitions for the next three transfer windows, although those limitations were removed in the end of the transfer window.
Regulator's Perspective
Kogan said: "Our role exists to serve the fans of Sheffield Wednesday, teams facing challenges where supporters are loyal to a local institution that has existed throughout their lifetimes in numerous instances.
"I have absolute sympathy for the club's situation, as I do for each organization that since 1992 have gone to the wall, or nearly ceased operations, for causes separate from the fans themselves."
Inquired if the authority might compel an proprietor to divest a club if they are judged inappropriate, Kogan said: "If your question is 'would we intervene in the final instance?', the answer is once we gather the evidence and know what's going on, we will."
But Kogan stressed that requiring chairmen to relinquish clubs would be viewed as the ultimate measure and the regulator would prefer to cooperate with proprietors.
"The last thing what we want to do is commence engagement with an individual club, an specific proprietor, without being in a position to cooperate with that owner to try and resolve the issues that the club's facing and the chairman's encountering," the regulator explained.
"In actuality, when you review the record of the sport, over the past few decades there have been some owners, few in number, but some who have been irresponsible in the approach they have taken toward their teams and eventually don't wish to take responsibility for the long-term prospects."
Wednesday followers have been protesting against the team's chairman in recent months
'If we get it wrong, extraordinary progress vanishes'
Kogan met with delegates from multiple organizations to detail the scope of the oversight body this week and maintained it represented a "progressive gathering" with a "high level of engagement" from the grassroots to elite level.
"It's a job that's actually really important, because should mistakes occur, if the sport makes errors, the extraordinary progress that's been made might evaporate rapidly," the chairman stated.
"This represents everyone's worst fear in the terms of English football is a substantial accomplishment - we need to continue the progress.
"There's an enormous amount of money flowing into the game and has been channeled for the past two decades, because there's no guarantee it will persist in entering the game, which is among the factors explaining I think we have to adopt a precise perspective on risk and of course, of the immediate future."
Elite Division Worries
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 fully support the achievement and development as an economic entity of the Premier League.
"I of all people understand the worry about compromising the division as a high-quality offering of the nation. But concurrently, if you engage with division representatives after the recent gathering, they would have had a significant degree of comfort -and, actually, they have been advising us privately they have a considerable comfort."
Partisan Associations
Kogan is still facing a "full inquiry" by the public appointments commissioner after he acknowledged providing funds to the political party in recent years.
The chairman donated money to government minister Lisa Nandy's leadership campaign, along with that of the current Prime Minister.
"I have fully disclosed my previous political affiliation [with Labour], and that political affiliation came to an end the day the official body endorsed my nomination," the chairman stated.
"I currently have no participation in any form of political activity."
