Mauricio Pochettino believes that his former Tottenham Hotspur team should be retroactively awarded the 2016-17 Premier League title following financial rule breaches by Chelsea. During that campaign, Antonio Conte’s Chelsea team finished champions by seven points, with Tottenham finishing as runners-up.
Pochettino Argues Tottenham Deserve 2016-17 Title
Chelsea faced disciplinary action after the club’s new ownership under Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital self-reported irregularities discovered during their 2022 takeover. The club admitted to historical breaches of competition rules and Football Association regulations, including 74 breaches of FA Rule E1.2. The Blues acknowledged making secret payments totaling £47 million to unregistered agents and third parties regarding transfers between 2011 and 2018 during the Roman Abramovich era.
Sanctions included a £10.75 million fine from the Premier League issued in March, alongside a £10 million fine and a suspended two-window transfer ban imposed by the Football Association in the summer. Transactions involving players central to the 2016-17 triumph—such as Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz, and Nemanja Matic—transgressed the rules. Hazard scored 16 goals during that specific title-winning campaign.
Pochettino Cites Unfair Competition and Demands Retrospective Action
Pochettino, who managed Tottenham from 2014 to 2019 and later took charge of Chelsea during the 2023-24 season, argued that the sporting penalties did not go far enough because the clubs did not compete under equal conditions. Transactions and player acquisitions during the affected period shaped the competitive balance of the league.
We should win one title, one Premier League. We should have been awarded it,
Pochettino said in a wide-ranging interview covered by RTÉ. They were punished, they admitted, so that’s it? The title should be for the team that was second.
The Argentine manager maintained that standard operating conditions were violated. 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,
he stated, adding that identical rules might have allowed Tottenham to sign players who could have improved the squad or scored more goals.
Wider Context of Tottenham Tenure and Club Leadership
During his five years at Tottenham, Pochettino led the club to the 2019 Champions League final, though they secured no silverware during his tenure. In the 2016-17 season, Spurs recorded the fewest defeats, scored the most goals, and conceded the fewest goals in the division, yet still ended up behind Chelsea.
Pochettino was dismissed by former Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy in November 2019. Levy himself later stepped down from his role last September following an invitation from majority owners, the Lewis family. Pochettino reflected on Levy’s departure, noting the difficulty of leaving after building the club for 25 years.
Reflecting on the lack of trophies during his managerial stint, Pochettino linked the rule-breaking controversy directly to his professional record. What is being promoted and incentivised is to break the rules. If you don’t punish in the way that you need to punish, I say: ‘Yeah … I lost my job because we didn’t win a title,’
he noted to The Guardian.
Worth a look
