It’s back: Join JOE’s Fantasy Football League

The Premier League starts again next weekend and that can mean only one thing: Fantasy Football is back.

Let’s face it, us sports fans have been positively spoiled for choice this summer, with the result being that many of you are probably already feeling Olympic-related withdrawal symptoms even though the closing ceremony only took place a few hours ago.

Not to worry though, the Premier League is on the way back and from next weekend until sometime in May we can all look forward to some regular cross-channel footy before we face into a summer of international sporting wildnerness, when the sporting nuts amongst us will really start to feel the pinch.

Anyway, hand in hand with the Premier League comes Fantasy Football and that’s almost as exciting as the football itself. For some, the excitement will last for about two weeks until they give up the ghost on their underperforming charges, while for others it will last until the very last day, when rewards in the form of cash and, more importantly, bragging rights over your mates, can be earned.

As with the last two years, we here at JOE are getting in on the act and from today, right now in fact, our loyal readers can join the J-League and battle it out to see who amongst you has the most knowledgeable managerial brain, or, more likely, the most time on their hands.

For the last couple of years, we have insisted on readers sending us in e-mails to ensure membership of the league, but that was all far too much hassle. This year, we’re just going to give you the code, with the caveat that we will be closing the league off to users on 18 August at 2.45pm – 15 minutes before the new season kicks off – so don’t come crying to us afterwards if you forget to register on time.

We’ll be tweeting and putting this up on Facebook a few times again before the start of the league on Saturday, but if you absolutely must join the J-League right now, here’s the code: 802924-200936

Whether you choose to take it on board or not, we will be offering weekly advice as to potential changes you should be making to your own team and if you’re producing the goods, we’ll also be publishing the top five on a weekly basis, with prizes to come at Christmas and at the end of the season.

Some members of the JOE editorial team will be entering our own individual teams, while we’ll also be keeping a very lazy eye on the office’s cumulative selection, JOE’s Journeymen, who actually earned a top 20 finish last season after some late intervention from our recently departed colleague Emmet Purcell, who will no doubt continue to try to meddle in the team’s affairs from his new base in Qatar.

That’s about the height of it, so if you haven’t already done so, get your arse over to fantasy.premierleague.com, select your team (easier to just press auto-complete and come back to it later) and enter the J-League.

Once again, the code is 802924-200936 and the incredibly strict deadline for entries is Saturday, 18 August at 2.45pm.

Let’s do this.