Mauricio Pochettino has called for Chelsea to be stripped of the 2016-17 Premier League title and awarded to Tottenham, after the club admitted historical breaches involving payments to agents and third parties.
Pochettino was Tottenham manager when Chelsea won the title under Antonio Conte. Spurs finished runners-up, securing their highest league position of the campaign behind the west London club.
The former Chelsea manager believes Tottenham should now be recognised as champions because the two clubs were not competing under the same rules.
Pochettino says Tottenham should receive Chelsea title
“For sure, we [Tottenham] deserve to be champions for that year because we were second best,” Pochettino told The Telegraph. “We should have been awarded it. We should win one title, one Premier League.”
He added: “They [Chelsea] were punished, they admitted it, so that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second. It’s not me complaining, it’s the truth. We didn’t compete with the same rules.”
Pochettino acknowledged that his comments were unlikely to be welcomed by Chelsea supporters, having spent the 2023-24 season in charge at Stamford Bridge.
“The Chelsea fans will be upset with me because I’m saying this,” he said. “But if we were at Tottenham and broke the rules, I’d admit the same and say ‘look, we don’t deserve the title because we broke the rules’.”
The Football Association charged Chelsea with 74 breaches relating to agent regulations, intermediary rules and third-party investment. The alleged conduct covered the period from 2009 to 2022, with the club admitting the breaches before an independent hearing.
The FA imposed a £10 million fine and initially ordered a suspended six-point deduction. Following Chelsea’s appeal, that sporting sanction was set aside and replaced with a two-window registration ban, also suspended until 30 June 2027.
The Premier League separately fined Chelsea £10.75 million in March after concluding that undisclosed payments had been made for the club’s benefit between 2011 and 2018. The league said its assessment found that Chelsea would not have breached its profitability and sustainability rules even if the payments had been properly recorded.
No decision has been taken to alter the official result of the 2016-17 Premier League season, but Pochettino believes the title should be transferred to Tottenham as a matter of sporting fairness.
