Should Chelsea be stripped of 2016-17 title and Tottenham crowned champions?
Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that Chelsea should be stripped of their 2016-17 Premier League title due to historical financial irregularities. The controversy stems from secret payments made to unregistered agents during the club's title-winning seasons.
Why it matters
This raises significant questions about the integrity of historical sports results and the consistency of regulatory punishments across different football clubs.
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Chelsea signed Eden Hazard from a string of other clubs by paying £5.6m to an unregistered agent
Football issues correspondent Published 10 September 2026 Should Tottenham be retrospectively crowned Premier League champions for the 2016-17 season?
That's the opinion of former manager Mauricio Pochettino, who led Spurs to a second-place finish - seven points behind Chelsea - that 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.
The transfers included Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto'o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic.
Four of those - Hazard, Willian, Luiz and Matic - were at the club in 2016-17.
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