Speaking exclusively to Football League World, former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Carlton Palmer admits he worries about the club being hit with another Financial Fair Play sanction next season.

Wednesday were eventually docked six points during the 2020/21 campaign for breaching FFP regulations following the sale of their Hillsborough stadium last year.

That would ultimately prove to be hugely costly for the Owls, who were relegated by three points on the final day of the campaign.

Reports last month claimed that Wednesday had again failed to pay their players on time, as off-field uncertainty continues to hang over the club.

Now it seems as though Palmer fears that they may yet have a negative impact on Wednesday as they attempt to win promotion back to the Championship from League One next season.

Looking ahead to the Owls' 2021/22 campaign, Palmer - who made over 200 appearances for Wednesday during his career - told Football League World: "The aim should be to get automatic promotion, but I'm assuming with the situation they're in, I don't know they'll get hit with financial fair play with the salaries for next season.

"But I don't know about that because a lot of the players at Wednesday are out of contract, so I don't quite know how that works, but certainly they don't want to start next season with a handicap of any kind of points. They want to be on a level playing field."

Discussing the challenge that will face Owls manager Darren Moore even without FFP issues, Palmer added: "Darren's got a lot of work to do because you've got seven weeks basically and it's a turnaround.

"So he's got to identify players and get them out, and hopefully he'll be able to do that and get a very good squad together to get promotion next season."