Fantasy Football League Is Back On TV! But Is It Any Good? My Thoughts

I only heard that Fantasy Football League was making it’s TV comeback a few weeks ago. I had mixed feelings, but overall I was thinking:

This is a bad idea, it’s going to be rubbish, they’re going to mess up one of my favourite TV shows growing up in the 90’s and 00’s.

I was ready to hate it before watching it, I had this blog post planned out in my mind of how terrible it was.

It was on Sky Max last night and I watched it.

Here’s what I thought of the first episode.

First off you’ll want to know how we got here if you’ve never seen or heard of Fantasy Football League before.

It was a football based comedy show which was first on BBC then made it’s way to ITV. Hosted by Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, and how can we forget “Statto” in his dressing gown.

The studio was supposed to represent the flat the pair lived in, and they hosted the show from the sofa with the live audience and camera right in front of them.

It would have celebrity guests who would enter the house ringing the bell and entering the front door, all of whom would be playing in their fantasy football league.

The show had several regular segments too. Things like Phoenix from the flames, where they’d comically re-create famous football moments. A big hello from… a song at the end to close the show (in later series’) and of course moments in the football world that they’d make jokes about.

The New Fantasy Football League On Sky

The new Fantasy Football League on Sky is hosted by Matt Lucas and Elis James, with Andrew Mensah taking on the “Statto” role.

So what’s it like?

I thought it was really good!

I was happily surprised at how good it was. Right from the outset they made jokes about replacing Skinner/Baddiel on the show, obviously knowing that the old viewers like me loved the old presenters.

The format was the same, and was re-created pretty well. Plenty of jokes with clips of funny moments from football and banter with each other, along with some sketches too.

They was a big hello from “Joanne Linton” (Joelinton), the Phoenix from the flames was Darren Bent, and at the end there was a song from Lee Trundle.

Rather than Statto having lots of stats and being the lovable but butt of many jokes, Andrew Mensah plays more of a comedic role, but does have a roundup of the week’s scores and fantasy football stats.

The first celebrity manager guests for the week were Sally Lindsay and Russell Howard, who both love football.

The show is on for 35 minutes, and I could have actually watched it for at least another 35 minutes, it was an enjoyable watch.

Summary: Fantasy Football League Is Back On TV! But Is It Any Good?

I thought that the show wouldn’t work because I loved the original line-up of presenters, and the fact it was a 90’s show in the good times of the 90’s thought that it might not work.

But Fantasy Football League still works in 2022! It’s still marries comedy and football really well, and I will be tuning in next week to watch the next episode.

It’s only one episode, but so far, so good.

If you want to watch it’s on SKY Max Thursdays at 10PM.

main image copyright Sky