—US rights: It’s hardly the number one sport across the Atlantic but still quite a few US soccer fans will be tuning in for Wednesday night’s UEFA Champions’ League final between Manchester United and Barcelona. This is the last final before UEFA’s rights move over from ESPN (NYSE: DIS) to Fox in 2010 and the encumbent network is keen to make the most of it: ESPN’s TV feed will be available to 116 countries including the US reaching 167.8 million homes, while VOD site ESPN360 will stream the footage live. This year Fox is relegated to showing seven hours of Sky Sports News in the build-up to the match, but has promised to show every Champions’ League game to US fans next year and will stream games live via Irish broadcaster Setanta. From NYTimes.com.

—Empire of Sports In-beta, multi-sport MMO game Empire of Sports has signed a profile-boosting partnership with FC Barcelona. Players, who play the role of professional footballers, can visit a Barca-branded clubhouse and a three-week Barca-themed contest has been arranged. The game is developed by French companies Infront Sports & Media and F4 and monthly membership starts at €2.22. A closed beta version of the game is about to start in China.

(Photo: from Gordonflood.com.)