Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said Manchester City could be thrown out of the Premier League after being found guilty of all charges of financial breaches by an independent commission.
The league has said City breached its financial rules on a huge scale between 2009-10 and 2017-18 after arranging 'sham' commercial deals as part of a disguised funding scheme.
Nandy told Channel 5 News: "I don't want to preempt any kind of appeal process, and they are entitled to a fair hearing. But what I would say is that the ultimate sanction is very serious indeed.
"I mean, a club can be expelled from the Premier League if these sorts of allegations are upheld, with obviously huge repercussions for everybody.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said Manchester City's guilty verdicts could lead to their expulsion from the Premier League. Photo by Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA Images via Getty Images "So there are very serious sanctions, and I think the bigger issue is how do we make sure that we have clearly understood rules that are upheld and applied consistently, and that we can move quickly when they're breached.
"The Premier League is one of our greatest exports. It brings joy to millions of people, and we want to make sure that we protect it for the fans for the future."
Former City chairman David Bernstein said the league's findings were "damning beyond belief" and that "the sanctions cannot just be financial".
Bernstein, who spent five years in the role before stepping down in 2003, also suggested the club's board should "be suspended immediately."
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It is damning beyond belief. My immediate thoughts are, should the board continue? Should the people involved be suspended immediately?
"Very, very serious. I think it's really terrible. There's a school of thought with lawyers that is 'deny, deny, deny', but this is a football club that is part of a league and the whole credibility of the league is at stake here.
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"I would go as far [as to say it is a deep-seated form of fraud] and if it is, I'm not a lawyer but as a thought this is something so serious that it goes beyond the football authorities.