Sporting briefs

Robinson: West Bromwich Albion have won their appeal against captain Paul Robinson's dismissal in Tuesday's 5-0 defeat by Manchester United, leaving the defender free to play at Hull City tomorrow. The last-placed club said the FA had overturned the red card after watching television replays. Robinson was sent off just before half-time for serious foul play with his side trailing 1-0.

Cassetti: Roma defender Marco Cassetti will be out for at least two months with a thigh injury. Roma are short at the back after Christian Panucci demanded to leave at the weekend after refusing to go on the bench for the game against Napoli.

Kovac: Spartak Moscow have loaned defensive midfielder Radoslav Kovac to West Ham United for six months. "I've spent four great years at Spartak but now it's time for a change," he said.

Taarabt: Tottenham's Adel Taarabt has been included in Morocco's squad for next month's friendly against the Czech Republic in Casablanca, despite previously having turned down the country. The 19-year-old was born in France and has represented them at youth level. He turned down an opportunity to feature for Morocco's U-23 side at the Olympics in Beijing, but was named in an expanded 32-man squad for the friendly on Feb. 11.

Silvestre: Arsenal's French defender Mikael Silvestre faces another three weeks out after struggling to recover from a thigh injury, the Premier League club said. Silvestre has not played since hobbling off in the FA Cup third round tie against Plymouth on January 3.

King's Cup: Quarter-finals, second legs - Sevilla vs Valencia 2-1 (agg: 4-4 - Sevilla win on away goals); Barcelona vs Espanyol 3-2 (Barcelona win 3-2 on aggregate).

Rallying: The International Automobile Federation has agreed to appoint International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) as sole global promoter of the world rally championship for 10 years from 2010. "We can now look forward with a great deal of optimism as ISC implements its comprehensive strategy for the championship's future," said FIA president Max Mosley. No financial details were divulged.

Golf: Ginn Resorts ended its involvement in professional golf, withdrawing sponsorship of an LPGA Tour event and another on the senior Champions Tour because of the global financial crisis. The company, which is primarily involved in real estate development and sales, had already ended its backing of the PGA Tour's Ginn sur Mer Classic late last year.

Rugby: The global credit crunch has hit Australia's top rugby players in the pocket with the Wallabies forced to take a paycut this season. The Wallabies had originally signed a collective agreement to receive A$12,374 (US$8,300) per test match this year but have agreed to trim it by A$874 per match to A$11,500. The Rugby Union Players Association said salary levels would return to normal in 2010.

American Football: All 70,000 tickets put on sale for the NFL clash between the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley Stadium in October were sold within 24 hours. American football has proved popular to London audiences and the third regular season NFL match to be staged at the stadium appears to have survived any gloom over the economy. Around 20,000 tickets were snapped up within seven minutes of going on sale on Tuesday.

Federation Cup: Grand Slam winners Serena and Venus Williams have declined invitations to play for the United States Fed Cup team in a first-round tie against Argentina next month. Without the sisters, the highest-ranked American player on the team for the Feb. 7-8 tie in Surprise, Arizona, will be world number 38 Bethanie Mattek. US captain Mary Joe Fernandez also named Jill Craybas, 17-year-old Melanie Oudin and Liezel Huber to represent the 17-times champions.