Pochettino Calls for Tottenham to Be Awarded Chelsea's 2017 Premier League Title

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Mauricio Pochettino has made a stunning call for Tottenham Hotspur to be retrospectively awarded the 2016/17 Premier League title after Chelsea were found to have breached financial and regulatory rules during the Roman Abramovich era.

Chelsea were fined £10.75 million by the Premier League earlier this year following an investigation into historical breaches involving undisclosed payments to players, unregistered agents and other third parties.

The breaches occurred between 2011 and 2018 and were voluntarily reported by Chelsea's new ownership after taking over the club in 2022.

However, despite the significant financial penalty, Chelsea were not stripped of any trophies or handed a points deduction.

For Pochettino, that does not go far enough. The Argentine managed Tottenham during the 2016/17 season, when Spurs finished second behind Antonio Conte's Chelsea. Tottenham collected a club-record 86 points but still finished seven points behind the champions, who amassed 93.

Speaking about the situation, Pochettino argued that Tottenham should now be recognised as the champions.

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

Pochettino believes the breaches meant Tottenham and Chelsea were not competing under the same conditions.

“If that [Chelsea's rule-break] 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.”

The former Spurs manager also suggested that Tottenham may have been able to strengthen their own squad had they been operating under the same financial circumstances as Chelsea.

“We didn't compete before the start of the season with the same card. Maybe with the same rules, we could have signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals.”

Chelsea's 2016/17 title-winning side was one of the strongest teams in the division, with Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, N'Golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta and others playing key roles in Conte's successful campaign.

Hazard scored 16 Premier League goals that season, while several players involved in the title-winning squad were linked to transfers in which unregistered agents or undisclosed payments were later found to have been involved.

Pochettino was careful to distinguish between Chelsea's footballing achievements and the alleged rule breaches.

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

But he believes the principle is straightforward: if a club breaks the rules, sporting consequences should follow.

“But if you broke the rules then ciao – you need to give it to another team.”

Pochettino went even further, arguing that the current approach could create the wrong incentives for clubs.

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

The former Tottenham boss also insisted that his position would be the same if the situation were reversed.

“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.’”

That point is central to Pochettino's argument. He is not claiming Chelsea did not deserve their success on the pitch; rather, he believes the circumstances surrounding the squad-building process meant the competition itself was compromised.

Chelsea accepted the financial punishment and have also been handed a suspended transfer ban following the investigation.

The club's current ownership voluntarily reported the historical breaches to authorities, a move that ultimately helped determine the punishment.

However, the question raised by Pochettino is unlikely to disappear:

If a club is later found to have gained an advantage by breaking the rules, should trophies won during that period be allowed to stand?

Should Chelsea's 2017 title stand, or should Tottenham be retrospectively crowned champions?