Home · Sports · Sep 10 archive
Can you make a case for Chelsea being stripped of 2016-17 title?
Confirmed
In Short: Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino argues Chelsea should be stripped of their title due to illegal transfer payments.
Chelsea won two Premier League titles and two FA Cups during the period of alleged illegal payments. However, the club has faced fines from Uefa, the Premier League, and the Football Association. Pochettino thinks this is not enough, stating, "They were punished, they admitted it. So that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second." Fans of Everton and Nottingham Forest have pointed out that their clubs faced points deductions for smaller breaches, while Chelsea sought to sign star players with secret payments.
The case against Chelsea is ongoing, with no verdict yet for the 115 charges against Manchester City for alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules. Pochettino's comments come as Chelsea's BlueCo consortium self-reported the breaches when they took over as the club's new owners in 2022.
What's confirmed
- Chelsea won two Premier League titles and two FA Cups during the period of alleged illegal payments. However, the club has faced fines from Uefa, the Premier League, and the Football Association. Pochettino thinks this is not enough, stating, "They were punished, they admitted it. So that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second." Fans of Everton and Nottingham Forest have pointed out that their clubs faced points deductions for smaller breaches, while Chelsea sought to sign star players with secret payments.
- The case against Chelsea is ongoing, with no verdict yet for the 115 charges against Manchester City for alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules. Pochettino's comments come as Chelsea's BlueCo consortium self-reported the breaches when they took over as the club's new owners in 2022.
What's still developing
- Chelsea signed Eden Hazard from a string of other clubs by paying £5.6m to an unregistered agent Should Tottenham be retrospectively crowned Premier League champions for the 2016-17 season?
- This is about Chelsea making £47m in secret payments, according to a Premier League investigation, to unregistered agents and third parties to seal transfers between 2011 and 2018.
- It was not as if Chelsea signed him in the summer of 2016.
- Premier League boss explains why Chelsea avoided points deduction Willian joined Chelsea from Anzhi Makhachkala in 2013, with the investigation finding that transfer fee payments totalling £19.2m were made to two unregistered entities in connection with his move and that of Samuel Eto'o.
- The transfers of David Luiz and Willian were part of the investigation into illegal payments The investigation found that Chelsea made payments totalling £5.1m between 2012 and 2015 "to provide talent identification services in certain European countries".
- How Chelsea signed a star team with hidden payments Tottenham were relentless at the end of the 2016-17 season, winning 12 of their final 13 matches to finish on 86 points.
- That's the opinion of former manager Mauricio Pochettino, who led Spurs to a second-place finish - seven points behind Chelsea - that season.
- Pochettino is one of the first people of significance to articulate what many feel - that Chelsea got off lightly with a fine.