The chair of English football's new watchdog says Manchester City's owner could be ordered to sell the club if the guilty verdict is upheld on appeal, The Independent reported.
David Kogan, head of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR), said the body has total power to make that happen.
Kogan made the remarks on The Rest Is Football podcast, The Guardian reported.
Asked whether an owner could refuse to divest, he answered with a flat no. He added that it is too early to talk about any IFR action while the appeal is still running.
What the commission found
An independent commission found City guilty of circumventing Premier League rules in late September.
It ruled that the club set up sham commercial arrangements to inflate revenues or cut costs by more than £900 million across nine seasons.
It also found City made concerted efforts to obstruct the Premier League's investigation into those arrangements.
City have lodged an appeal. The club claims the verdict contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.
Where the regulator stands
Kogan said the IFR can ask an owner to step away if it believes a club is being run in a way that is not fit, fair or proper. City's owner is Sheikh Mansour.
Any move against him would be a separate process from the Premier League case.
Whether the IFR opens its own investigation is undecided. Kogan said the regulator will wait until the outstanding questions are answered, then decide whether to mount an inquiry and what to do.
He warned that pre-judging that outcome would be a serious mistake.
Kogan has also pledged to resign if there is political interference in any IFR investigation into City, the Guardian reported.
That pledge came amid concerns that such a case could cause a diplomatic problem between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
What it means for bettors
On Kogan's own account, the regulator is not acting yet. The appeal comes first, and an IFR decision on whether to investigate comes after that.
There is no regulator ruling for City's markets to price in at this stage.
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