Pochettino: Spurs Deserve Chelsea’s 2017 Title

Mauricio Pochettino believes Tottenham should have been awarded the Premier League title Chelsea won in 2016-17 after the London club was found to have broken competition rules.

Pochettino led Tottenham to second place that season, finishing seven points behind Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.

Nearly a decade later, the former Tottenham manager has revived the debate over what should happen to titles won by clubs later found to have breached football regulations.

Chelsea were fined £10.75 million in March after the Premier League found historical breaches involving undisclosed payments made between 2011 and 2018. The payments involved third parties linked to the club, including players, unregistered agents and other parties.

The Premier League said Chelsea had failed to disclose the payments. However, it also concluded that the club would not have breached its financial rules had the payments been properly included in its historical submissions.

Pochettino, now manager of the United States, argued that the punishment should have gone further.

“We should win one title, one Premier League. We should have been awarded it,” he said during a media briefing earlier this week.

His argument rests on the belief that Tottenham and Chelsea were not competing under the same conditions.

“They were punished, they admitted, so that's it? The title should be for the team that was second,” Pochettino said.

He suggested that Tottenham might have made different decisions in the transfer market if it had known about Chelsea’s activities at the time.

“Maybe with the same rules, if we apply the same things, maybe we could've signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals,” he said.

Chelsea’s title-winning campaign was one of the most dominant of the Conte era. The club won 30 of its 38 league matches and finished with 93 points. Tottenham ended the season on 86 points.

Pochettino acknowledged that changing the result years later would be complicated. But he maintained that the principle was straightforward.

“If they admitted they broke the rules, the Premier League title was for the second best team,” he said.

The comments also carry an unusual twist because Pochettino later became Chelsea’s manager. He spent the 2023-24 season at Stamford Bridge before leaving the club and subsequently taking charge of the United States national team.

Chelsea’s historic case emerged after information was provided following Todd Boehly’s consortium takeover of the club in 2022. The Premier League subsequently brought charges over the undisclosed payments, while the Football Association separately charged Chelsea with 74 alleged breaches of its rules.

The Premier League’s findings did not state that Chelsea would have lost the 2016-17 title had the payments been disclosed. Nor has the league announced any decision to transfer the championship to Tottenham.

That leaves Pochettino’s claim as a question of principle rather than an established change to the Premier League record.

For Tottenham supporters, however, the argument touches on a familiar frustration: they finished closer to the champions than they had ever done under Pochettino, yet the title remained out of reach.

Nearly 10 years on, the former manager believes the club deserves recognition for what he considers an unfair contest.

About the Author

Eugene Stephen Were, popularly known as Steve O’clock, is a Kenyan journalist, digital media specialist and multimedia storyteller. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Digital Media from Murang’a University of Technology, with expertise in news reporting, environmental journalism, digital content, photography, videography and film production. Contact & Social Media: Phone: +24795699374 | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BhhxUAYmk/ | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steve_oclock__mwenyewe | TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oclockcityc.e.o?_r=1&_t=ZS-98czWCBnRxg