UEFA Champions League @ ESPN Deportes.

ESPN Deportes has the U.S. telecast rights to the UEFA Champions League and will began its coverage of the 2005 season on Tuesday, Sept. 13. The first week of the UEFA Champions League will feature some of Europe’s top clubs in the league, including defending champions Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and Chelsea.

The ESPN Deportes coverage of UEFA Champions League will include two teams of announcers made up of ESPN broadcasting veteran Luis Omar Tapia (play-by-play) and World Cup legend Mario Kempes (analysis). More than eight years after his retirement, Kempes is one of the most famous footballers in the world and is widely recognized as one of the greatest Argentine footballers of all-time. In 1978, he led the Argentine National Team to its first World Cup title after scoring two goals in the final game over Holland. ESPN Deportes commentator Randy Alvarez (play-by-play) and Eduardo Biscayart (analysis) will compose the second telecast team.

ESPN Deportes will provide extensive, season-long coverage from the group stage through the final match. In total, ESPN Deportes will offer coverage of up to 77 matches and up 186 original hours of UEFA Champions League programming. Each match day, the network will televise selected matches LIVE, while featuring the remaining matches on short turnaround or tape delay.

Additional UEFA Champions League Coverage from ESPNdeportes.com, ESPN Deportes Radio and ESPN Deportes La Revista.

ESPN Deportes will also utilize its other platforms to provide unmatched coverage of the UEFA Champions League:

— ESPNdeportes.com, the company’s Spanish-language website, will offer comprehensive UEFA Champions League news and information throughout the season. Highlights will include exclusive GameCast of every match, real-time scores and statistics, game re-caps and box scores and pre-game and post-game analysis of ESPN Deportes telecasts. ESPNdeportes.com will also feature weekly chats sessions hosted by Mario Kempes and Luis Omar Tapia. The site will also offer a weekly column by Luis Omar Tapia. As a prelude to the 2005 UEFA Champions League season, Luis Omar Tapia will host an online chat on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 12 p.m. ET., just a few hours before the season begins. Mario Kempes will also host a chat on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 12 p.m. ET.

— ESPN Deportes Radio, the first around-the-clock, national Spanish-language sports radio network in the United States (launching in the Fall), will provide the latest UEFA Champions League news and information throughout the season.

— ESPN Deportes La Revista, a Spanish-language edition of the award-winning ESPN The Magazine, will feature a monthly UEFA Champions League column with contributions from ESPN Deportes soccer experts. The September issue of ESPN Deportes La Revista takes an in-depth look at the teams in the league and the top 10 Latin Americans that can change the outcome of this year’s championship.

— Telecasts of UEFA Champions League Weekly, ESPN’s weekly series airing Friday evenings during the UEFA Champions League season provides updates, interviews, features and historical pieces on the league.

— Telecasts of UEFA Champions League Highlights, a weekly 30-minute highlight program airing Thursdays of each match week hosted by Randy Alvarez reviews all the top goals and plays from the league.