I didn’t plan not to like Liverpool Football Club. It just worked out that way. Perhaps inevitably, because I came in contact with several of their fans.

As an American who paid scant attention to the Premier League until I went to work in the Old World … I had no violent opinions on much of anything in England’s top soccer division.

I thought Aston Villa and Queens Park Rangers had cool names. I knew Manchester United was popular because a half-English guy I know (a Californian) used to tell me about them. (I pretended to listen.) I knew about Sheffield Wednesday because it’s a silly name. I knew Fulham because Brian McBride played for them.

I knew Liverpool was a prominent team, but I didn’t know we all are supposed to be reverential about it or should somehow mystically divine they are the only team worthy of a person’s support. Which probably is where the problems began.

More than most, Liverpool fandom seems to require mindless devotion. At all times. Even if one of your players just bit someone.

The thing about Liverpool is … the sense of importance lingers long after the club stopped being a serial champion. The club has won the English top flight 18 times — but not since 1990. It does have that 2005 Champions League triumph, and Liverpool fans make a meal out of that.

(In the infamous Ted Lasso video, the comedian Jason Sudeikis attempts to link Premier League clubs with NFL teams. His assistant holds up Liverpool’s logo and says, “Used to be great, haven’t won a title in a really long time.” To which Sudeikis says, “Dallas Cowboys.”)

So, this year, Liverpool got back in the Uefa Champions League for the first time since 2010, and tonight they played Real Madrid, the defending champion … and Liverpool got handled 3-0, in their home park. Halfway through group play, they are tied with Ludogorets and Basel (not to be confused with Barcelona or Bayern) on three points, and only one of them will get to the round of 16, and if it were not Liverpool, I wouldn’t mind at all.

An interesting Liverpool fact? The club’s No.1 official, the chairman, is Tom Werner, head of Fenway Sports Group. Yes, Fenway as in Boston Red Sox.

Seems fitting that the same guy should be in charge of the American baseball team with the most obnoxious fans … as well as the English football club with the most obnoxious fans.