The BBC last week announced it had added Thierry Henry, Phil Neville and Rio Ferdinand to its roster for the World Cup. Henry is likely to slip seamlessly into the role filled by Ruud Gullit and Leonardo while Ferdinand will become the latest former player to try to pull off the Gary Neville trick of constructively criticising players with whom he was recently sharing a dressing room.
Lineker's previous deal with the corporation was not exclusive, according to sources, and he has worked for Al-Jazeera Sports, alongside Ruud Gullit, Alan Shearer and Terry Venables.
It was a goal that left Ruud Gullit comparing him to Lionel Messi on Match of the Day.
But Ruud Lubbers, the former Dutch prime minister appointed to run it last January, has decided it must cut its coat according to its cloth.By being a bit dramatic, Mr Lubbers wants to draw donors' attention to the agency's chronic shortage of money.
But while we know all about his views on globalisation it is a pity that we know nothing about his views on refugee protection ("Ruud surprise", October 28th).You are wrong in lumping together as "egomaniacs" Sergio Vieira de Mello (his correct name) and Bernard Kouchner.
Looking back at other disease outbreaks in the country, among them FMD and swine fever, Ruud Huirne, an economist at Wageningen University, reckons that the total economic loss due to avian influenza could reach euro1 billion.The human infections are disturbing, but not, as yet, cause for serious concern.
No wonder Ruud Lubbers, the former Dutch prime minister who now heads UNHCR, complains that the West has largely forgotten the plight of the people in the world's refugee camps.What has gone wrong?
"Speaking the language and having contacts with Germans is more important than feeling German," says Ruud Koopmans of the Social Science Research Centre in Berlin.In Bremen the ugly turn in the debate makes it harder to achieve even scaled-back integration.
Germany's Helmut Kohl refused to countenance Ruud Lubbers, the Dutch prime minister, and Britain's John Major vetoed the Franco-German choice of Jean-Luc Dehaene, the Belgian prime minister.
Thinking (and the UNHCR's job) broadened under Ruud Lubbers, a former Dutch prime minister, who managed in his time (2001-2005) as head of the agency to breathe new life into some old buzzwords: repatriation, reintegration and rehabilitation.
So on the summit's second day, its chairman, Ruud Lubbers, the Dutch prime minister, presented a greatly watered-down social chapter.
