Mauricio Pochettino has argued that Chelsea’s 2016/17 Premier League crown should be stripped from them and handed to Tottenham instead, pointing to the Blues’ admitted breach of transfer regulations that season.
The west London club were hit with a fine and a suspended transfer ban from both the Premier League and FA after confessing to rule violations spanning 2011 to 2018, which included roughly £47million in improper agent payments tied to deals such as Eden Hazard’s signing. Chelsea’s current owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, were shown some leeway for flagging the breaches themselves after taking over from Roman Abramovich in 2022.
Pochettino, who later had his own spell in charge at Stamford Bridge, never lifted a trophy during his Tottenham tenure despite guiding the club to a Champions League final and widespread praise for their style of play. Their closest brush with the league title came in 2017, when they finished runners-up to Chelsea — and it’s this campaign the Argentine believes warrants a rewrite of history, given his side were competing on an uneven footing.
Speaking to Mirror Football, Pochettino insisted that had the rules been applied equally, Spurs might have landed different signings or racked up more goals, and that since Chelsea have owned up to the breaches, the title rightfully belongs to whoever finished second. He compared the situation to one team playing with offside rules or VAR while another doesn’t, stressing that fairness demands identical conditions for everyone, and made clear he wasn’t taking anything away from Antonio Conte’s achievement in building a strong side that season.
He acknowledged the stance would ruffle feathers among Chelsea supporters, but maintained he’d say the same if the situation were reversed and Tottenham were the guilty party — arguing that breaking the rules should cost a team the title, full stop, regardless of which club is involved.
