Pochettino calls for Chelsea to lose 2016-17 Premier League title over rule breaches

Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea should have been stripped of the 2016-17 Premier League title and the honour awarded to his Spurs side, after the club was punished for financial rule breaches.

Chelsea were fined £10 million ($13.4 million) in July and handed a suspended two-window transfer ban after breaching Premier League regulations during the Roman Abramovich era.

The club admitted 74 breaches of Football Association rules relating to agents, intermediaries and third-party investment in players. The breaches were self-reported to football authorities in 2022 by owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, while they were completing their purchase of Chelsea from Russian billionaire Abramovich.

The offences concerned deals that brought Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic to Stamford Bridge. All four players played important roles in Chelsea’s title-winning campaign under Antonio Conte in 2016-17.

Chelsea finished seven points ahead of Pochettino’s Tottenham, who ended the season as runners-up. Pochettino believes the punishment did not go far enough and that Spurs should now be recognised as champions.

“We should win one Premier League, we should have been awarded it,” Pochettino told reporters.

“If that was true, then we deserve to be champions that year, for sure. They were punished, they admitted it? So that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second.

“We can say that they scored goals, they won games. OK. But it’s completely fair to say that we didn’t compete before the start of the season with the same card.

“Maybe with the same rules, we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals.”

Pochettino, who now manages the USA national team, later took charge of Chelsea during the 2023-24 season.

He said he would make the same argument if Tottenham had been found guilty of similar offences, regardless of the reaction from Chelsea supporters.

“I have no doubt and I’m not scared to say the truth. The Chelsea fans will be upset with me but if we were at Tottenham and broke the rules, I’d admit the same: ‘We don’t deserve the title because we broke the rules.’

“It’s impossible if only some clubs play with offside and another plays with no offside. Or one plays with VAR and another plays with no VAR.

“For everyone it needs to be the same rules. And then you have the capacity to create the best team.

“I don’t say that Chelsea didn’t play well, that Conte was not great. I don’t say that. I don’t want the message to be twisted.

“But if you broke the rules then ciao, you need to give it to another team. I don’t know why that didn’t happen.

“What is being promoted and incentivised is to break the rules.”

Pochettino was in charge of the USA during the World Cup and signed a contract extension last month to remain in the role until the 2030 World Cup.