NEW DELHI: Coaching applications supposedly from Pep Guardiola and Xavi Hernandez to manage India’s football team turned out to be a hoax, the natio­nal association said on Saturday.

Subrata Paul, national team director of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), said earlier this week that Xavi had applied to the vacant job.

But the AIFF this weekend said the approaches were not “genuine”.

“The AIFF received an email furnishing the applications from Spanish coaches Pep Guardiola and Xavi Hernandez. The authenticity of their applications could not be confirmed, and it has since emerged that the email applications were not genuine,” the AIFF said in a statement.

Manchester City manager Guardiola’s application was never reported earlier.

The Indian men’s team are without a coach since Spaniard Manolo Marquez stepped down earlier this month as head coach after just one year and one win in eight games.

The AIFF advertised the vacancy, and later said it received 170 applications.

India’s men are 133rd in the FIFA rankings — their lowest placing in nearly a decade — and have won just one of their last 16 matches.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2025