The most anticipated club soccer match of the year kicks off today featuring Bayern Munich against Chelsea in the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final, live from Munich, Germany.

The winner will be crowned the best team in Europe. The loser will suffer the agony of coming so close.

More than 100 million people from around the world are expected to watch today’s final, drawing a bigger audience that the much-hyped Super Bowl.

Here’s EPL Talk’s guide to where the match is being shown on television:

United States

Chelsea against Bayern Munich will be shown live on the free-to-air FOX network, beginning with pre-match coverage at 2pm ET.

Live
 from
 Munich, 
FOX 
Sports’
 Curt
 Menefee 
serves 
as 
event 
host, 
with 
FOX
 Soccer’s 
Rob 
Stone
 hosting
 studio
 coverage.
 FOX
 Soccer
 analyst
 and
 American
 National
 Soccer
 Hall
 of
 Famer
 Eric
 Wynalda
 joins
 Tottenham
 goalkeeper
 and
 former
 United
 States
 National
 Team
 player
 Brad
 Friedel
 for
 pre‐game,
 halftime
 and
 post‐match
 analysis.
 Legendary
 Sky
 Sports
 play‐by‐play
 announcer 
Martin 
Tyler 
calls 
the
match 
with 
analysis 
from 
former 
Manchester 
United 
defender
 Gary 
Neville.

FOX
 Soccer’s
 pre‐game
 coverage
 begins
 at
 1:00
 PM
 ET
 preceding
 FOX
 Sports’
 over‐the‐air
 programming.
 FOX
 Deportes
 is
 carrying
 the
 match
 live
 in
 Spanish,
 and
 FOX
 Soccer
 re‐airs
 the
 match
 at
 8:00
 PM
 ET
 on
 Saturday
 night
 with
 FOX
 Soccer
 Plus
 doing
 the
 same
 at
 5:00
 PM
 ET
 on
 Sunday,
May
20.

After
 a
 week
 of
 lead‐up
 programming,
 FOX
 Deportes,
 the
 nation’s
 leading
 Spanish‐language
 sports
 cable
 network,
 begins
 its
 coverage
 on
 May
 19
 at
 1:00
 PM
 ET
 with
 “UCL
 Final
 Preview,”
 live
 from
 Munich.
 
 Match
 coverage
 begins
 at
 2:30
 PM
 ET,
 followed
 by
 the
 post‐match
 celebration 
at 
5:00
PM 
ET
.

For the English-language broadcast on FOX, there’ll be a pre-match segment featuring Tom Arnold.

Chelsea vs Bayern Munich will be shown on demand online via FOX Soccer 2Go after 5pm ET.

United Kingdom

The 2012 UEFA Champions League will be shown on both ITV and Sky Sports in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

On Sky Sports, Martin Tyler and Gary Neville are the commentators, while ITV has Clive Tyldesley. Sky Sports will have Jeff Stelling as the lead presenter, while ITV opt for Adrian Chiles.

The coverage on Sky Sports begins at 6pm BST. Coverage on ITV 1 starts at 7pm BST.

Canada

Coverage of the UEFA Champions League Final will kick off on Canadian TV beginning at 2pm ET on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific.

SOCCER CENTRAL’s Craig Forrest and Gerry Dobson set the stage for the prestigious match with a special 45-minute pregame show. Stephen Brunt joins the panel with a feature story on Roman Abramovich’s quest to win the Champions League Final as owner of Chelsea. The show will also feature “Forrest’s Finest”, as the Sportsnet soccer analyst names his “Best XI” team from the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League competition. The panel will also provide half-time and post-game analysis of the match.