England FA chose Roy Hodgson as manager over Pep Guardiola

FA turned down a chance to interview Pep Guardiola as he was ‘not English’

According to a report in Daily Mail, The FA refused a chance to interview former Barcelona Pep Guardiola for the England manager’s job last year, instead favouring Roy Hodgson. The decision was taken as such because they had already made a policy decision to hire an English manager.

The revelation will be a shock to fans because Guardiola is widely considered as one of the world’s best coaches, and has a proven record with a club like Barcelona, where he won two Champions League and three La Liga titles to go with a number of other accolades.

But as per that report, an FA insider is adamant that former FA chairman David Bernstein was correct with his policy of backing home grown talent, as it would send the right message to coaches in England. The reports says that Guardiola was interested in talking to the FA after Fabio Capello left in the wake of the John Terry racism saga in February last year.

By that time Pep had already announced his decision to leave Barcelona at the end of the 2011-12 season. He, though, was not certain about taking a sabbatical.

But the FA, it is understood, sent a message to Guardiola stating they need the new man to take charge for Euro 2012, and ended the matter there. The source, as per the report, also reveals that the FA were contacted by agents of many top managers but only English ones were considered seriously due to an already declared policy.

The FA appointed former Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, 66, as England boss on May 1 last year.

An FA spokesman said on Saturday: ‘This was a confidential process. We made it clear from the outset the preference was for an English manager and appointed the best man for the job, based on the outline set out by David Bernstein at the time.’