Pochettino Calls For Chelsea To Be Stripped Of 2016/17 Premier League Title

Former Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has called for the club to be stripped of its 2016/17 Premier League title and for the trophy to be retrospectively awarded to Tottenham Hotspur.

According to Ireporter Online, Pochettino made the call following sanctions imposed on Chelsea over historical financial and transfer-related rule breaches dating back to the Roman Abramovich era.

Chelsea were fined £10 million by the Football Association in July and handed a suspended two-window transfer ban after multiple violations linked to historical transfer dealings.

The Premier League had also fined the club £10.75 million in March over breaches involving unlicensed agents and attempts to conceal the nature of some transfer arrangements between 2009 and 2022.

Deals involving players including Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic were among those found to have breached regulations. The players were important members of Chelsea’s squad during their title-winning campaign under Antonio Conte.

Tottenham, managed by Pochettino at the time, finished second in the 2016/17 Premier League season, seven points behind Chelsea.

Pochettino argued that Tottenham should now be recognised as champions because Chelsea allegedly benefited from circumstances surrounding the rule breaches.

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

“If that [Chelsea’s rule-breaking] 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 second team.”

The former Chelsea boss also argued that Tottenham did not enter the season with the same competitive advantages as their London rivals, suggesting Spurs could have strengthened their squad if they had operated under the same circumstances.

“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,” he said.

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

Chelsea’s historical breaches were reported by the club’s current ownership, BlueCo, after taking over from Abramovich in 2022. The club avoided a points deduction, but Pochettino believes the punishment should have included a retrospective change to the title.

He stressed, however, that his argument was not intended to discredit Chelsea’s performances under Conte during the campaign.

“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,” Pochettino said.

“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.”

Pochettino also highlighted the contribution of Hazard, who scored 16 Premier League goals during Chelsea’s title-winning season, while insisting that the broader issue was the need for football regulations to be applied equally to every club.

“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,” he said.