Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has called for Chelsea to be stripped of their 2016-17 Premier League title following the club’s financial rule breaches, insisting the honour should be handed to his former side, who finished runners-up.
Chelsea were fined £10 million ($13.4 million) in July and handed a suspended two-window transfer ban over breaches of Premier League regulations during the Roman Abramovich era.
The club admitted to 74 breaches of FA rules relating to agents, intermediaries and third-party investment in players.
Pochettino demands title change
The breaches were self-reported by owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in 2022 while completing their takeover of the club from Abramovich.
Some of the breaches involved transfers for Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic, who all played key roles in Chelsea’s title-winning campaign under Antonio Conte.
Pochettino, whose Tottenham team finished seven points behind Chelsea that season, believes the punishment was insufficient.
“We should win one Premier League, we should have been awarded it,” Pochettino told reporters.
“If that 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.”
Pochettino, who now coaches the USA national team, later managed Chelsea during the 2023-24 season.
He said the same standard should apply to every club, arguing that teams should not benefit from breaking the rules.
“I have no doubt and I’m not scared to say the truth,” he said.
“If you broke the rules then ciao, you need to give it to another team. I don’t know why that didn’t happen.”
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