Mauricio Pochettino has argued that Chelsea should lose the Premier League title they won in the 2016-17 season after the club was found to have breached financial and transfer regulations. In his view, the championship should instead have been handed retrospectively to Tottenham, who finished second under his management.

Chelsea were sanctioned by the Football Association in July with a £10 million fine and a suspended transfer ban covering two windows. The punishment followed several rule violations dating back to the Roman Abramovich ownership period. Earlier, in March, the Premier League had imposed a separate £10.75 million penalty on the club.

The investigation found that Chelsea had worked with agents who were not properly licensed and had failed to provide a transparent account of certain transfer activities carried out between 2009 and 2022. A number of high-profile signings were connected to the breaches, including Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic.

Those players subsequently became important figures in Antonio Conte’s title-winning Chelsea side in 2016-17. Details of several undisclosed transactions involving Abramovich’s network of offshore companies emerged through an investigation published by the Guardian alongside international media partners in 2023.

Tottenham Finished Seven Points Behind Chelsea

Chelsea’s current ownership group, BlueCo, reported the historical violations to the authorities after completing the takeover from Abramovich in 2022. The disclosure was made with the expectation that voluntary cooperation could reduce the severity of the eventual punishment.

Chelsea ultimately avoided a points deduction, a decision Pochettino believes did not go far enough. The Argentine later took charge of Chelsea during the 2023-24 campaign and is now managing the United States national team, but he remains convinced that Tottenham should have benefited from the sanctions.

His Spurs side ended the 2016-17 Premier League season seven points behind Conte’s champions.

Pochettino said that if the violations were proven and Chelsea had accepted responsibility, Tottenham had a legitimate claim to the championship.

He also acknowledged that Chelsea had performed strongly on the pitch. However, his argument was that competing under unequal circumstances undermined the fairness of the title race from the outset.

According to Pochettino, clubs should operate under identical regulations before a season begins. Had Tottenham possessed the same financial flexibility and opportunities in the transfer market, he believes they might have strengthened their squad sufficiently to challenge Chelsea more effectively.

Hazard Was Among the Players Who Made a Difference

Chelsea’s success during the Abramovich era was substantial. From 2009 through 2022, the club collected three Premier League championships, two Champions League trophies, two Europa League crowns, four FA Cups and one League Cup.

When asked specifically about Hazard’s influence on the 2016-17 title race, Pochettino accepted that the Belgian winger could have played a significant role in determining the outcome.

Hazard scored 16 Premier League goals that season and was one of the key attacking players in Conte’s team.

Pochettino nevertheless insisted that his position was not motivated by fear of criticism from Chelsea supporters. He said he would take exactly the same stance if Tottenham had been the club found guilty of breaking the rules.

For him, the principle is straightforward: if a club wins a competition while violating regulations, the punishment should affect the sporting achievement rather than simply result in a financial penalty.

Pochettino Questions the Message Sent by the Punishment

Pochettino compared the situation to a football match in which teams are allowed to compete under different laws. He argued that a contest cannot be considered completely fair if one side is subject to regulations that another side is effectively allowed to ignore.

The former Tottenham manager stressed that his criticism was not intended to diminish Conte’s work or suggest that Chelsea were a poor team.

He accepted that Chelsea scored the goals, collected the victories and performed well enough on the pitch. His objection was centered on what he considered an uneven competitive environment created by rule breaches that occurred before and during the relevant period.

Pochettino questioned why the title was not reassigned once the violations had been acknowledged and punished.

In his view, failing to impose a sporting sanction strong enough to alter the outcome could create the wrong incentive for clubs. If breaking regulations results only in a financial penalty without consequences for sporting honours, he argued, teams could conclude that the potential rewards outweigh the risks.

Pochettino also linked the issue to his own time at Tottenham. He suggested that the absence of a Premier League title ultimately contributed to the circumstances surrounding his departure from the club.

His argument remains blunt: football needs one consistent set of rules for every team, and when those rules are broken in a way that affects competitive balance, the consequences should extend beyond a fine.