Follow the Champions League Final on Twitter

The UEFA Champions League Final is the biggest night of the year for European football. And as fans from around the world gather around their TVs this Saturday, they’ll also come together on Twitter to join the global conversation.

London’s Wembley Stadium (@WembleyStadium) plays host for the second time in three seasons with this year an all-German game between FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayern) and Borussia Dortmund (@BVB).

Hashtags

Hashtags allow fans to congregate around a conversation, and Uefa has chosen #UCLFinal as the official hashtag for the game. They have already been included on the men’s trophy ribbons, as well as #UWCLFinal on the women’s:

Both Teams will use the #UCLFinal hashtag, as will the @ChampionsLeague account, which launched for the start of this season and passed one million followers this week.

So use #UCLFinal in your tweets or just search for it on Twitter to see what Uefa, the teams, media and fans around the globe are saying.

Uefa will be looking for the best tweets sent to #UCLFinal on game day for use on the screens inside Wembley - so be sure to use the hashtag in your Tweets to be in with a chance of having your message hit the big screen!

Parades

The two teams have their own hashtags too - and on Friday’s parades through London fans will see the hashtag #packmas on Bayern’s coach (a Bavarian phrase meaning ‘Let’s do it’ ) and #fairytale on BVB’s bus (which comes from the term their coach used to describe their amazing season).

Hashtags on the team bus has become a way for football teams to involve their fans in the biggest moments - one year ago Manchester City (@MCFC) used #Together on the bus as they paraded the Premier League (@PremierLeague) trophy and recently Manchester United.

Festival

The game itself - and the women’s #UWCLFinal tonight (Thursday) at Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) - are the centrepieces but there’s more going on around London too.

From today (Thursday) until Sunday, the Olympic Park will host the Champions League Festival. If you’re heading there, take your phone and download the Twitter app, as you’ll be able to vote for your player of the season, get points for your football skills, and more using Twitter and RFID technology.

The Festival will also feature an Ultimate Champions game, and the #TwitterMirror will be there, allowing the legendary former players (plus maybe even the odd movie star) to tweet photographs of themselves from @ChampionsLeague.

Vine

So stay tuned to Twitter throughout the weekend, and make sure you also download Vine from the app store. Vine, a six-second video app, is enjoying its first UCL Final having launched in January, and it’s been great to see BVB making cool use of it here.

We at Twitter Sports (@TwitterSports), also wanted to wish good luck to both teams as only Vine can. Check out our Vine for @BVB and our Vine for @FCBayern.

Follow the #UCLFinal teams and players on Twitter:

Borussia Dortmund (@BVB)

Midfielder and club captain Sebastian Kehl (@bastifuenf)
Striker Nuri Sahin (@nurisahin05)
Midfielder Moritz Leitner (@MoLeitner)
Midfielder Mario Götze (@MarioGoetze)

FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayern)

Goalkeeper and German national team keeper Manuel Neuer (@Manuel_Neuer)
Midfielder Basti Schweinsteiger (@BSchweinsteiger)
Striker Mario Mandzukic (@MarioMandzukic9)
Striker Claudio Pizarro (@pizarrinha)

The top 10 most followed sport stars on Twitter:

Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) 16.9m
Kaka (@Kaka) 14.6m
LeBron James (@KingJames) 7.5m
Shaquille O’Neil (@Shaq) 6.8m
Neymar (@NJR92) 6.2m
Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) 5.9m
Andres Iniesta (@AndresIniesta8) 5.5m
Ronaldinho (@10Ronaldinho) 5.48m
Gerard Pique (@3gerardpique) 5.43m
Chad OchoCinco Johnson (@Ochocinco) 5m