Premier League responds after Pochettino calls for Chelsea to be stripped of title

Premier League chiefs insist they did not let Chelsea off lightly amid the storm surrounding their 2017 title.

Former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea should have been stripped of the title and Spurs made champions instead. Pochettino said: “If they admitted they broke the rules, the Premier League title was for the second-best team.”

It did cause a huge backlash when the Premier League, the Football Association and UEFA dished out punishments after Chelsea admitted they made £47million in illegal payments on transfers between 2011 and 2018.

Everton fans were angered as they were hit with a points deduction after Profit and Sustainability Rules but Chelsea escaped with a £10m fine.

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The Premier League’s position is that Chelsea self-reported the issue after Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over the club in 2022 and effectively came clean after discovering illegal payments which were made under Roman Abramovich’s regime.

The payments included seven for a total of £5.6m made to an unregistered agent “for the benefit of” Eden Hazard’s transfer. Chelsea star Hazard was their star player in the 2016/17 season when Pochhetino’s Tottenham were runners-up.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said last month: “It’s historic. It’s very different to the PSR cases. In the case of Chelsea, the new owners came forward with all of the information and we decided to enter into a sanction agreement.

“That was overseen by a commission as well and part of the role of that commission is to ensure that sanction is not unduly lenient.”

The Premier League have also argued that even with the illegal payments taken into account, it would not have taken Chelsea over the PSR threshold and that £10m is a record fine. They also say that Chelsea went to great lengths to show complete transparency.

The FA also investigated the case and initially imposed a fine AND a suspended six-point deduction. But the points deduction was overturned on appeal and deemed an “excessive sanction.”

It is not clear whether the FA, as governors of the game, could go above a points deduction and actually strip a Premier League club of the title.

However, the FA are still investigating individuals involved in the case. They are likely to be agents and intermediaries because Abramovich and other Chelsea employees have long since left the club. Tottenham declined to comment.

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