It's the biggest day of the year for fans of painfully-protracted procedure, cringingly-stilted conversation and flummoxed former footballers fumbling around attempting to prise open plastic globes.
The draw for the Champions League group stage has long been one of the highlights of the calendar, the moment when those watching largely enquire as to why something so simple is taking so long before berating the fortune of rivals while bemoaning the difficult task facing their team.
Certainly, that was the case for Liverpool last season after they were placed in the same section as European heavyweights Atletico Madrid, Porto and AC Milan, the quartet boasting 25 final appearances between them.
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That number was bumped up another notch by the Reds going on to reach the showpiece against Real Madrid in May having become the first English team to win all six group games in the competition. What appeared on paper a daunting challenge ultimately proved anything but.
Liverpool, though, will know there is plenty of scope for a repeat when the latest draw takes place in Istanbul at 5pm this evening.
The Reds, as they were last season, are in Pot 2, the highest-ranked team outside of Pot 1 which consists of Champions League winners Real Madrid, Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt and the champions of the six main European leagues.
And Real will arguably be the one team Liverpool will want to avoid given their poor recent record against the Spaniards in the competition, with Sadio Mane's Bayern Munich and French titans Paris Saint-Germain also difficult opponents.
Pot 3 contains a number of tough challenges, ranging from Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, Italian duo Inter Milan and Napoli and Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk. Meanwhile, Scottish pair Rangers and Celtic will be ones to avoid in Pot 4.
Of course, any possible combination is laced with potential pitfalls. But a group of Real, Inter and Celtic would almost certainly be more challenging than being drawn alongside Porto, Red Bull Salzburg and Viktoria Plzen.
And there is a further reason Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp would prefer a less demanding draw.
With the World Cup taking place in November, the entire Champions League group stage will be done inside nine weeks, starting earlier in the campaign on September 6/7 and completed on November 1/2.
That is a particular issue for the Reds this season given their ongoing injury crisis. Normally, only half of the group games would have been played in the time the entire programme will be completed this season, giving extra time for crocked players to return.
Instead, two games will have been played by September 14 alone, allowing only a narrow window for players to have recovered sufficiently.
Liverpool, then, will hope the balls are kind to them later today. After all, a difficult start to the season is only going to become more challenging once European football returns to Anfield.
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