Pochettino Says Chelsea's 2016-17 Premier League Title Should Go to Tottenham After Rule Breaches

Mauricio Pochettino believes that because Chelsea breached 74 financial rules, his Tottenham Hotspur team should have been awarded the 2016-17 Premier League title.

This summer, Chelsea were fined £10 million by the FA and given a suspended transfer ban after admitting breaches of agent regulations during Roman Abramovich's ownership, particularly rules related to player signings between 2011 and 2018. Pochettino, who led Tottenham to second place in the 2016-17 Premier League season behind Chelsea, believes the title should be taken away from Chelsea and awarded to another team.

"I said that we should have won a title, a Premier League title," Pochettino told reporters. "We should have got that title. If that is the case, and it really is, then we absolutely deserved that year's title because we were second."

Tottenham had the fewest defeats, scored the most goals and conceded the fewest goals in the 2016-17 Premier League season, but ultimately finished seven points behind Antonio Conte's Chelsea.

Chelsea's new owners discovered accounting irregularities during their 2022 takeover of the club and voluntarily reported them to the authorities, after which the club admitted to 74 breaches of FA Rule E1.2. However, Pochettino believes Chelsea and Tottenham were effectively competing under different rules during the affected years.

"They were punished, they admitted it, and that's it," Pochettino said. "The title should belong to the second-place team. We were not competing under the same rules at that time. Now we can say they scored goals and won matches. But it can also be said that before the season started, we were not competing under the same rules. Maybe if the rules were the same, if we had taken the same measures, we could have signed some players, made the team stronger, or scored more goals. I am not complaining, it is just a fact."

The FA's allegations mainly focused on payments of millions of pounds to unregistered agents connected with player signings, including deals involving Eden Hazard, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic, all members of Chelsea's 2016-17 title-winning squad. Pochettino believes Hazard may have been a key factor in Chelsea winning the title that year.

"Chelsea fans may not be happy that I say this," said Pochettino, who managed Chelsea in the 2023-24 season, "but if we had broken the rules when we were at Tottenham, I would have admitted it and said: 'Look, we do not deserve the title because we broke the rules.' If some clubs follow the offside rule and others do not, or some use VAR and others do not, it does not work. No. The rules must apply equally to everyone, and everyone must work under the same rules to build the strongest team."

Pochettino made clear that his criticism was not directed at the players or coaches. "I am not saying they did not play well. Conte was an excellent coach, and I do not want my words to be misunderstood. But if you broke the rules at that time, your qualification should be reconsidered. The title should be awarded to another team."

English football has historically been reluctant to strip teams of titles already won because of rule breaches, but Pochettino believes this approach sends a negative message to clubs.

"This is actually encouraging and promoting rule-breaking," he said. "If people are not punished in the way they should be, they will say: 'Okay, but I lost my job because we did not win the title.'"

Pochettino failed to win a trophy during his time as Tottenham manager and was dismissed in November 2019. He believes this context should lead people to view his work differently. "At that time we were competing against clubs with completely different operating models. I think we deserved more recognition. The way we operated was different from them."