Челси клуб санхүүгийн дүрэм зөрчсөн нь тогтоогдсон тул тухайн улиралд дэд байрт орсон Тоттенхэм аваргын титмийг хүртэх эрхтэй гэж Маурисио Почеттино үзэж байна.
Роман Абрамовичийн эзэмшлийн үед буюу 2011-2018 оны хооронд тоглогчдын наймаатай холбоотой агентийн дүрэм журмыг 74 удаа зөрчсөнөө Челси хүлээн зөвшөөрсөн юм. Энэхүү зөрчлийн улмаас тус клуб энэ зун Английн хөлбөмбөгийн холбооноос 10 сая фунт стерлингийн торгууль хүлээж, тоглогч солилцооны хоригт орсон билээ. Гэвч спортын хувьд ямар нэгэн шийтгэл оногдуулаагүй нь шударга бус хэмээн тухайн үед Тоттенхэмийг удирдаж байсан Маурисио Почеттино шүүмжилжээ.
2016-17 оны улиралд Тоттенхэм хамгийн цөөн хожигдол хүлээж, хамгийн олон гоол оруулсан ч Антонио Контегийн Челсигээс долоон оноо дутуугаар дэд байрт орсон юм. Почеттиногийн үзэж буйгаар тухайн үед хоёр баг ижил нөхцөл, ижил дүрмийн дор өрсөлдөөгүй тул Челсигийн гаргасан зөрчлүүд нь аварга болох үр дүнд шууд нөлөөлсөн байх боломжтой аж.
Тэрээр хэлэхдээ, дүрмийн дагуу тоглоогүй баг аваргын цомыг эзэмших ёсгүй бөгөөд хэрэв Тоттенхэм ийм зөрчил гаргасан бол цомоо хураалгах ёстой байсан гэдгээ илэрхийлжээ. Английн хөлбөмбөгт дүрэм зөрчсөн тохиолдолд түрүүлсэн багийн цомыг хураах тохиолдол ховор боловч, ийм арга хэмжээ авахгүй байх нь бусад багуудад дүрэм зөрчихийг урамшуулсан буруу дохио болно гэж тэрээр нэмж хэлсэн байна.
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Mauricio Pochettino believes that his Tottenham Hotspur team should be awarded the 2016-17 Premier League title because of Chelsea’s 74 breaches of financial rules.
Chelsea were fined £10million by the FA this summer, and given a suspended transfer ban, after admitting breaching agent regulations during the Roman Abramovich era, specifically regarding signing players between 2011 and 2018.
But there was no sporting sanction and Pochettino, who managed Tottenham to a second-placed finish behind Chelsea in 2016-17, believes that title should be stripped from Chelsea and re-awarded.
“I’ve said that we should win one title, one Premier League,” Pochettino told reporters. “We should have been awarded it. If that was true, and that happened, for sure we deserve to be champions for that year. Because we were the second best.”
Tottenham finished the 2016-17 campaign with the fewest defeats in the Premier League, and having scored the most goals and conceded the fewest, but ultimately seven points behind Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.
Chelsea’s new ownership found irregularities in the accounts during their purchase of the club in 2022 and self-reported to the authorities, and then admitted to the 74 breaches of FA Rule E1.2. But Pochettino believes that Chelsea and Tottenham were fundamentally playing by different rules during the affected years.
Pochettino said his issue was not with Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte (Julian Finney / Getty Images)
“They were punished, they admitted (it), so that’s it,” Pochettino said. “The title should be for the team that was second. We didn’t compete with the same rules. OK, now we can say that they scored goals, they won games. But it’s completely fair to say that we didn’t compete before the start of the season with the same card. Maybe with the same rules, if we apply the same things, maybe we could have signed some players that would have made the team better, or scored more goals. It’s not me complaining. It’s the truth.”
The FA’s case centres on millions of pounds of payments made to unregistered agents in connection with signings, including Eden Hazard, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic, all of whom were part of Chelsea’s title-winning side in 2016-17. Pochettino believes that Hazard may have made the difference that year.
“The Chelsea fans will be upset with me because I’m saying this,” said Pochettino, who managed Chelsea in the 2023-24 season. “But if we were at Tottenham and broke the rules, I would admit the same and say, ‘Look, we don’t deserve the title because we broke the rules’. It’s impossible if only some clubs play with offside and another plays with no offside. Or one plays with VAR and another plays with no VAR. No. For everyone, it needs to be the same rules, and the capacity to create the best team.”
Pochettino made clear that his issue was not with the players or coaches. “I don’t say that they did not play well. Conte, the coach, was great. I don’t want this message twisted. But if you broke the rules, in the moment, then ‘ciao’. You need to give it to another team.”
English football has traditionally been reluctant to strip titles in cases of wrongdoing but Pochettino believes this sends the worst possible message to clubs.
“What is being promoted and incentivised is to break the rules,” he said. “If you don’t punish the way that you need to punish, I say ‘yes, but I lost my job because we didn’t win the title.”
And Pochettino, who was sacked by Tottenham in November 2019 without winning anything, thinks that his work should be viewed differently in that context. “We were fighting with clubs (who worked) in a completely different way to us. I think we deserve more. We operated in a different way.”
