Feyenoord of the Netherlands, has confirmed that Dutch legend Ruud Gullit will succeed Bert van Marwijk as coach of the Eredivisie giants at the end of the season.

Former 2002 Brazilian World Cup star Rivaldo has rejected deals from European clubs and will return to play in Brazil for Cruzeiro on a one-year contract.

French World Cup keeper Fabien Barthez, who was ousted at Manchester United by American Tim Howard, made a triumphant return to French soccer after his transfer from United to Marseille last weekend. Barthez saved two penalty kicks before scoring the winning spot-kick in the penalty shootout that broke a 1-1 deadlock in the French Cup game against Strasbourg.

J. A. Miller writes: "Since when is parity the ideal system for professional sports? In my opinion, what has happened in American football to create parity has ruined the sport. MLS seems to have a similar problem. The problem is continuity, or rather a lack of it. Any league that creates parity through a hard salary cap creates a situation where players will inevitably be churned on a continual basis and fans will be cheated of any lasting relationship with the players who are the focus of their adoration (and the recipients of their hard-earned money). Sports used to be great because you associated players with places. Now we cheer for laundry. The uniform is the only thing that doesn't change (and that is not even true now, if a third or fourth kit can squeeze a few more dollars out of someone's pocket). Everything in sports today is about money, and while I suppose it is naive to believe it has ever been about anything else, it is certainly more blatant today and sports in general are the worse for it."

Jason Day writes: "Is it just me or has MLS completely screwed over Brian McBride? For the past several weeks, (coach Graeme) Souness of Blackburn Rovers has been singing the praises of the (Columbus) Crew forward and of his intention of bringing him to the English Premier League. After being told that it will cost him significantly more than it cost Everton (for a loan) last year, (Souness) was then told he would have to pay for his transfer outright rather than wait till after the season to see how he performs (a completely unreasonable request for a 31-year-old striker with minimal time overseas).

IClarke Cummings says: "Hello Mad Brit. A quick follow up to John W. Scott's rant about college soccer. Of the 12 players he rattled off (and he could have listed a lot more), only 50 percent finished their college eligibility. The others left early to pursue pro careers. Half of those who left early were pre-MLS, pretty impressive. Expand to the full roster of 23 (24 with Armas) and only 10 finished their four years of eligibility. From what I could tell, a few of those 10 didn't finish their degrees. Even if you threw out the statistical outliers (foreign players David Regis, Carlos Llamosa and Earnie Stewart), you're left with only 10 out of 21who did four years of college.

"Many of the best players left early because the college game will not develop professional players. Should it, probably not, but they need to change their playing restrictions to allow the programs to grow. I happen to think that promising players should forgo college. You can always go back to school."

Paul Estrada writes: "While we're discussing the inadequacies of NCAAsoccer, let's examine the roster of the United States at the last World Cup where it advanced to the quarterfinals. Someone should point out that none of those players got their experience they used in WC-2002 in college. . . All one has to do is look at the PATHETIC squad in WC-90, all mostly 'collegiate' players to know that NCAA college soccer is a joke, plain and simple. Its like going from junior college to Harvard."

Kevin Linstrom writes: "I always took it on faith that college soccer wasn't worth a damn -- the season is too short, they use silly rules (even by American soccer standards), the level of play is pathetic. But the letter you put in your mailbag about the collegians who contributed in the 2002 World Cup really surprised me. Don't get me wrong, I would rather see college soccer improve some things, and I think Project-40 is insanely important to the U.S. continuing to get up to worldwide standards. But Eddie Pope? Clint Mathis? Josh Wolff? Claudio Reyna? I won't list all of them, but needless to say that certainly there is some value to playing college soccer."

Heard a rumor, have a gripe or a tip? Feeling lonely? E-mail the Mad Brit at themadbrit3@aol.com.