Spurs should be awarded 2016-17 title - Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino believes Chelsea should be stripped of the Premier League title for 2016-17, when his Tottenham team finished runners-up.

Chelsea were fined £10.75m in March after being charged by the Premier League for historical breaches of competition rules.

The club also had a six-point deduction "set aside" on appeal. Antonio Conte's Chelsea team finished seven points clear of Pochettino's Spurs in 2016-17.

Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital self-reported 74 breaches of Football Association rules when they purchased the club in 2022.

The Blues admitted making £47m in secret payments to unregistered agents and third-parties over transfers between 2011 and 2018.

Pochettino, who managed Spurs from 2014 to 2019, said: "We should win one title, one Premier League. We should have been awarded it.

"[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."

The current USA coach led Tottenham to the 2019 Champions League final during his five years in charge of Spurs.

They did not win a trophy during his time there, with his best Premier League finish being that second place to Chelsea in 2017.

"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," added the Argentine, who later became Chelsea boss for the 2023-24 season.

"It's not me complaining - it's the truth. If they admitted they broke the rules, the Premier League title was for the second-best team.

"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."

What did Chelsea do wrong?

After reporting the potential rule breaches, Chelsea said that it "treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators".

A subsequent investigation by the Premier League found that payments by third parties associated with Chelsea were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties, which were not disclosed to the regulatory authorities at the time.

The Premier League's report named a number of transfers related to those payments between 2011 and 2018, including those of Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto'o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic.

There was no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of those players. Hazard, Willian, Matic and David Luiz all played for the Blues in 2016-17.

The Premier League assessed a series of recalculations of the club's historical financial submissions, taking into account the previously undisclosed payments, and concluded that Chelsea would not have breached its profitability and sustainability rules had the payments been registered at the time.

It therefore deemed that a points deduction would not be an appropriate punishment.

The £10m fine would have been £20m, but was reduced by 50% on account of Chelsea's proactive self-reporting and co-operation with the process.

The additional £750,000 fine in March was for the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022, for which Chelsea were also given an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban.

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