Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino stirred the hornet’s nest, saying that the 2016/17 Premier League title should be stripped from Chelsea and given to Spurs instead. Pochettino said this because Chelsea was fined 10 million pounds (USD 13.4 million) in July and given a suspended two-window transfer ban after appealing penalties for breaching English Football Association agent rules.

“We should have been awarded it. If that 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,” Pochettino said to The Guardian.

In the aforementioned season, Chelsea had won the Premier League by a seven-point margin over Tottenham. Chelsea was initially given a suspended six-point deduction along with the fine but the points penalty was replaced by the suspended transfer ban. Chelsea admitted to 74 breaches in total of FA regulations covering agents, working with intermediaries and third party investment in players.

Story continues below.
Subscribe to see fewer ads.

Pochettino had left Tottenham in 2019 and then also went on to coach Chelsea in the 2023/24 season after which he left the club by mutual consent after failing to secure Champions League qualification.

Last year, the now United States manager has said that he misses managing in the Premier League and has thought about returning to coach in the league in future. The 53-year-old said the PL was the most competitive league of all, adding that he still has ambitions of winning the league and the Champions League.

Pochettino took over his current role in September 2024, a few months after he quit as Chelsea manager after managing the London club for one season. “The Premier League is the best league in the world. Of course, I am missing it. I am so happy in America, but also thinking one day to come back to the Premier League. It’s the most competitive league,” Pochettino told BBC Sport.