Tottenham should be declared the 2016-17 Premier League champions, Mauricio Pochettino said, after Chelsea admitted breaking competition rules and were fined £10.75m.
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The former Tottenham manager pointed to a set of admissions and penalties that followed a review of Chelsea’s conduct, including a six-point deduction that was set aside on appeal. Chelsea’s owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, self-reported 74 breaches to the Football Association when they took control in 2022, and the club accepted that it made £47m in undisclosed payments to unregistered agents and third parties on transfers between 2011 and 2018.
Pochettino, who led Spurs from 2014 to 2019, argued those findings mean his side competed on an uneven playing field in 2016-17, the season Tottenham finished runners-up to Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. He said, "We should win one title, one Premier League. We should have been awarded it."
Expanding on that claim he added, "[ Chelsea ] were punished, they admitted, so that's it? The title should be for the team that was second. It's true that we didn't compete with the same rules. It's completely fair to say that we didn't compete before the start of the season with the same card."
As context, Spurs were also beaten 4-2 by Chelsea in the 2016-17 FA Cup semi-finals. During his five years at Tottenham Pochettino took the club to the 2019 Champions League final but did not win a trophy, with the second-place finish in 2017 his best league result.
Pochettino, who later became Chelsea boss for the 2023-24 season, said his comments were a statement of fact rather than complaint. "If they admitted they broke the rules, the Premier League title was for the second-best team," he said, adding, "I'm not scared to say the truth. The Chelsea fans will be upset with me because I'm saying this, but if we were at Tottenham and broke the rules I'd admit the same."
