Sporting briefs

LOEW: Former Germany captain Michael Ballack and coach Joachim Loew have ended their years-long feud with the latter accepting an invitation to attend the retired player’s farewell game. Loew said yesterday he had talked to Ballack on the phone after months of silence between the two and he would be attending his June 5 game in Leipzig.

POGBA: Juventus teenager Paul Pogba earned his first France call-up as Les Bleus face Georgia and Spain in World Cup qualifiers later this month. Midfielder Pogba, who will celebrate his 20th birthday today, joined Juventus from Manchester United this season and had an immediate impact, scoring five goals from 20 Serie A games.

BROWN: Craig Brown has announced he will stand down as Aberdeen manager at the end of the season. The club revealed he had agreed to continue his involvement with the Dons as a non-executive director. In a statement on the Aberdeen website, Brown said: “Having reflected long and hard on the situation, I felt the time was right for me to step down as manager.”

BANNED: Bulgarian referee Ahmed Ahmed has been banned for the rest of the season for erroneously disallowing a goal in Levski Sofia’s 1-0 win over Litex Lovech in the first leg of the Bulgarian Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday. “The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) referees’ commission has taken Ahmed Ahmed off the referees’ list until the end of the season for unsatisfactory performance,” the BFU said in a statement.

KHUMALO: South Africa have dropped captain Bongani Khumalo from next week’s World Cup qualifier as the fall out from their African Nations Cup failure in January began yesterday. Coach Gordon Igesund said a lack of game time at his Greek club PAOK Salonika meant Khumalo, the former Tottenham Hotspur central defender, would not be sharp enough for the Group A match against the Central African in Cape Town on March 23.

GERNDT: Striker Alexander Gerndt has withdrawn from the Sweden squad following negative reaction to his selection due to a conviction for domestic violence. “Because of the negative attention around me, I cannot do this at this time,” said Gerndt. Gerndt, suspended from the national side following his conviction on two counts of domestic violence in 2011, was selected by coach Erik Hamren in the squad to face Ireland in a qualifier on March 22