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Pochettino Calls For Chelsea To Be Stripped Of 2016-17 Premier League Title
Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea should have been stripped of their 2016-17 Premier League title and the trophy awarded to Tottenham.

Pochettino’s Spurs side finished second that season with a club-record 86 points, seven points behind Antonio Conte’s Chelsea who won the league with 93 points.

His reaction comes after Chelsea were fined £10.75m by the Premier League for historical breaches relating to undisclosed payments around transfers and third parties. The breaches, which covered the period from 2011 to 2018 and involved players like Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic, were reported by the club themselves after the 2022 takeover. The club cooperated with investigators and avoided a points deduction.

Pochettino, who is now head coach of the United States national team and managed Chelsea in the 2023-24 season, believes a sporting punishment was warranted.
“We should win one Premier League, we should have been awarded it,” Pochettino said.

“If that [Chelsea’s rule-break] 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.”
The Argentine argued Spurs did not compete on a level playing field.
“We didn’t compete before the start of the season with the same card. Maybe with the same rules, we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals.”
He was quick to clarify that he was not discrediting Chelsea’s football that year.
“I don’t say that Chelsea didn’t play well, that Conte was not great. I don’t say that. I don’t want the message to be twisted. But if you broke the rules, then ‘ciao’ — you need to give it to another team. I don’t know why that didn’t happen.”

“If we were at Tottenham and broke the rules, I’d admit the same: ‘We don’t deserve the title because we broke the rules.'”
Despite his comments, Chelsea remain the official champions of the 2016-17 season.
Source: Punch Nigeria –