Sporting briefs

Garde: Aston Villa manager Remi Garde has left the club by mutual consent. The Frenchman was only appointed in November on a three-and-a-half-year deal, but has been unable to prevent their slide towards relegation. Villa sit bottom of the Barclays Premier League, 12 points from safety with seven games remaining. Eric Black will take over as acting manager until Garde's replacement is appointed. Olic: Hamburg forward Ivica Olic may have played his last game as a professional footballer after being ruled out for up to a month with a torn thigh muscle. The 36-year-old, who will retire at the end of the season to take up a role as youth team coach with Hamburg, is expected to be out for between three and four weeks after suffering an injury in training on Tuesday, the club announced on their official Twitter account. Fined: Four clubs have been fined for breaching FIFA rules which ban third parties from influencing transfer policy or from owning players. Dutch club FC Twente were fined 185,000 Swiss francs ($190,000), Brazil's Santos 75,000, Belgium's St Truiden 60,000 and Spain's Sevilla 55,000 by FIFA's disciplinary committee. All four clubs were also issued with warnings while...

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