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The Championship club's current difficulties are seen as a "serious issue" and the football regulator is seeking powers to look into club affairs in comparable cases, the recently named head the official has stated.

In a wide-ranging interview, the regulator, who was appointed on Monday, showed understanding towards the club's followers.

Kogan met with four supporter groups connected to the Championship side in recent days.

The football club 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 the autumn.

"Clearly Sheffield Wednesday has been a significant problem for EFL and a significant problem for football," the chairman stated.

"The club represents one of the iconic names for football in England and recently we have met Sheffield Wednesday supporters' groups.

"Our aim is to acquire the ability... which will permit us to bring Sheffield Wednesday - and other clubs brought to our attention if they warrant scrutiny and acted upon."

Monetary Issues and Leadership Concerns

Wednesday's embattled owner Dejphon Chansiri indicated in the summer he would be open to selling the club at the stadium, but he has failed to complete a sale with interested parties.

Missed wage deadlines on time in earlier this year resulted in restrictions being imposed by the league officials in June, preventing the club from carrying out any recruitment activities for the next three transfer windows, although those limitations were removed in late summer.

Official's Viewpoint

The chairman stated: "The job [of the regulator] is there for the fans of Sheffield Wednesday, teams facing challenges where people are committed to a community organization that has existed throughout their lifetimes in multiple situations.

"I have absolute sympathy for Sheffield Wednesday, as I do for every team that since 1992 have gone to the wall, or approached financial ruin, for factors unrelated to the followers."

When asked if the oversight body could require an chairman to relinquish a club if they are considered unfit, the chairman responded: "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 the regulator clarified that requiring chairmen to relinquish clubs would be viewed as the ultimate measure and the authority would rather to work with them.

"The last thing what we want to do is commence engagement with an particular organization, an particular chairman, without being in a position to cooperate with that owner to try and resolve the issues that the club's facing and the proprietor's dealing with," the regulator explained.

"However, realistically, when you review the record of football, over the last 20 or 30 years there have been particular chairmen, few in number, but particular people who have shown negligence in the way which they've been managing their organizations and finally decline to assume obligation for the long-term prospects."

'If we get it wrong, extraordinary progress vanishes'

The regulator engaged officials from numerous teams to detail the scope of the oversight body this week and insisted it was a "forward-thinking discussion" with a "significant participation" from the lower divisions to the top flight.

"This position carries substantial significance, because if errors are made, if the football community fails, the significant advances achieved could disappear swiftly," Kogan said.

"And that's what nobody wants in the context of the English game is a substantial accomplishment - we need to continue the progress.

"Substantial financial resources coming into football and has been channeled for the past two decades, because there are no assurances it will keep flowing into the sport, which is among the factors explaining I think we have to take a really clear view on risk and of course, of the immediate future."

Elite Division Worries

Elite division representatives objected to the creation of a regulator because of apprehensions regarding adverse consequences on the elite division's competitive balance, 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 this country. But concurrently, if you engage with division representatives after the recent gathering, they would have had a substantial amount of confidence -and, actually, they have been informing us confidentially they have a considerable comfort."

Political Connections

Kogan is still facing a "comprehensive investigation" by the official appointments authority after he acknowledged providing funds to the Labour Party in recent years.

The official provided financial support for Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy's leadership campaign, along with that of the now Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

"I have been entirely transparent regarding my former ideological connection [with Labour], and that ideological connection terminated the day the official body endorsed my nomination," the regulator explained.

"I am no longer involved in any type of partisan engagement."