The realisation came swiftly and without warning.
I was watching the news the other morning before heading off to work and on came the sports bulletin.
Footage from the previous night’s football then filled the screen and the studio talk was of matches that had completely bypassed me.
That was when it hit home I just don’t care very much about the Champions League any more.
As someone who has no hesitation in citing the time I was fortunate enough to cover the Real Madrid v Bayer Leverkusen final at Hampden in 2002 as the highlight of my reporting career, this development has come as something of a shock.
Indeed, I have been hunting around for an explanation ever since.
Of course, I will be interested in the later rounds and no doubt taking a seat in a pub to watch the final.
However, the group stages do not excite me enough to merit the manufacture of an excuse that would allow me to sit in front of the TV all night.
I found something else to do instead and didn’t miss it at all.
The Champions League, for me, has started to go the way of some other sporting tournaments, in that interest only picks up at the quarter-final stages or even later.
Am I the only (former) football fanatic to feel this way?
Is the problem mine or could it be that the gloss on the game’s top club competition is beginning to fade?
Perhaps after all those years of protesting to the contrary, there finally is too much football on the telly.