diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 3cfb7947b..55d10101f 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #5549: graphviz Correctly deal with non-existing static dir
 * #3002: i18n: multiple footnote_references referring same footnote causes
   duplicated node_ids
+* #5561: make all-pdf fails with old xindy version
 
 Testing
 --------
diff --git a/sphinx/texinputs/Makefile_t b/sphinx/texinputs/Makefile_t
index 782d5ef9a..2afabb360 100644
--- a/sphinx/texinputs/Makefile_t
+++ b/sphinx/texinputs/Makefile_t
@@ -33,8 +33,6 @@ XINDYOPTS += -M LICRcyr2utf8.xdy
 {% if xindy_cyrillic -%}
 XINDYOPTS += -M LatinRules.xdy
 {% endif -%}
-# also with pdflatex as LICRlatin2utf8.xdy replaces xindy's /tex/inputenc/utf8.xdy
-XINDYOPTS += -I xelatex
 {% endif -%}
 # format: pdf or dvi (used only by archive targets)
 FMT = pdf