AFTV (formerly known as ArsenalFanTV) is a football fan
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channel and website directed at
supporters
In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the Escutcheon (heraldry), shield and depicted holding it up.
Early forms of supporters are found in medieval seals. H ...
of
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (inclu ...
Based in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, England, the channel was created in 2012 and includes fan interviews, previews and reviews of players. They have interviewed players such as
Olivier Giroud
Olivier Jonathan Giroud (born 30 September 1986) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the France national team. Regarded for his work-rate, strength, acrobatic strikes, shot power, consistent goal-s ...
,
Ian Wright
Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer. He works as a pundit for BBC Sport and ITV Sport.
Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal ...
and
Thierry Henry
Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best players ...
.
History
The channel was created in October 2012 and was founded by former
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
radio host Robbie Lyle; Lyle had worked as a
surveyor
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...
before quitting his job to work on ArsenalFanTV full-time. He created the channel with his cameraman "Tao" who had also quit his job to pursue a career on YouTube.
![Emirates Stadium 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Emirates_Stadium_1.jpg)
Their first fan interviews were conducted after Arsenal's 5–2 win against
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
,
Arsenal's local rivals.
When asked by
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
on why he created the channel, Lyle said that "we've all had enough of the so-called pundits, most of whom aren't even at the games. So I started my own channel to hear from the real fans, with real opinions. That was my aim with the site".
ArsenalFanTV pioneered the concept of supporter-led TV or "Fan TV", which has led to other club supporters creating similar channels on YouTube.
Since its creation, the channel has continued to provide viewers with fan interviews and content about Arsenal on
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
but its rise in the YouTube community occurred as a result of the many viral videos it had posted from fan interviews. The channel has uploaded several videos of angry rants from supporters directed at the
club's ownership, some of which include Chris Hudson's rant after the loss to
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...
in 2013 and Troopz in 2017 following Arsenal's 5–1 defeat to
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
in the
Champions League.
Much of the anger from supporters on the channel was directed towards former manager
Arsène Wenger
Arsène Charles Ernest Wenger (; born 22 October 1949) is a French former association football, football Manager (association football), manager and football player, player who is currently serving as FIFA's Chief of Global Football Developme ...
, who many believed should have resigned following his long tenure at the football club, especially during the
2016–17 season in which there was a divide among Arsenal fans, with a minority being "Wenger In" and a majority being "Wenger Out". There has also been criticism towards major shareholder
Stan Kroenke
Enos Stanley Kroenke (; born July 29, 1947) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal F.C. of the Premier League and Arsenal W.F.C. of the WSL, the Los ...
who many Arsenal fans believe should sell his shares to the next major shareholder
Alisher Usmanov
Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov (russian: Алишер Бурханович Усманов; born 9 September 1953) is an Uzbek-born Russian businessman and oligarch. By 2022, Usmanov had an estimated net worth of $19.5 billion and was among the ...
following claims of his lack of desire towards the club and comments made by Kroenke himself stating that he "didn't buy Arsenal stakes to win trophies". This was referenced on
BT Sport
BT Sport is a group of broadcasting of sports events, pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, Warner Bros. Dis ...
by the former
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
international
Rio Ferdinand
Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and was ...
when he mentioned the frustration of Arsenal supporters with Wenger on ArsenalFanTV in 2016.
On 20 April 2018,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
premiered a new late-night football show called ''
The Real Football Fan Show'' hosted by Lyle and featuring many ArsenalFanTV regulars. In March 2020, Lyle was also the subject of an
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
documentary entitled ''Robbie Lyle: Football Fans Under Their Skin'' in which he discusses racism within football and the experiences of black football supporters.
Notable contributors
Although the channel interviews a variety of Arsenal supporters after every game, there are a few supporters who are regularly interviewed by Robbie Lyle and are well known by many of the channel's viewers.
Current
*"Ty" (Taiwo Ogunlabi): Seen as optimistic and is well known for his support of Arsène Wenger. He constantly defended Wenger during his tenure as manager despite facing growing opposition from supporters
and is often labelled as "delusional".
*Lee Judges: A lifelong Arsenal supporter, Lee has given several passionate rants about the demise of Arsenal under Wenger.
*"White Yardie" (Harry Gregory): A comedian originally from
Black River, Jamaica
Black River is the capital of St. Elizabeth Parish, in southwestern Jamaica.[Black River](_blank)
Jamaica National Heri ...
, he joined the channel following Troopz's departure in November 2020.
Former
*
Claude Callegari
Claudio Luciano Ricardo Callegari (19 October 1962 – 29 March 2021) was an English Arsenal supporter and a contributor to the football YouTube channel AFTV. He made his first appearance in 2012 before becoming a regular until 2020. He died on ...
: An outspoken critic of Arsène Wenger, he is famous for saying "It's time to go!" about Wenger.
In July 2020, he was removed as a contributor after making a racist remark about Tottenham Hotspur player
Heung-Min Son
Son Heung-min ( ko, 손흥민; ; born 8 July 1992) is a South Korean professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur and Ca ...
during a livestream.
He died on 29 March 2021, aged 58.
* "Troopz" (Aumar Hamilton): Another vocal critic of Wenger, Troopz is known for his use of
multicultural London English
Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE) is a sociolect of English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken mainly by young, working-class people in multicultural parts of London.
As the label suggests, speakers of MLE come fro ...
words such as "blud" and "fam". In September 2020, Troopz announced his departure from AFTV to join
Barstool Sports
Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that produces content on sports and pop culture. Founded by David Portnoy in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts, the company's two primary owners are ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
although he continued to appear on the channel until November 2020. He has since made occasional appearances on AFTV.
*“DT” (Liam Goodenough): A vocal critic of Wenger, DT is also known for his angry rants whenever Arsenal lose and has been responsible for placing many "Wenger Out" banners at Arsenal matches. In January 2022, AFTV announced that he had been permanently banned from appearing on the channel after being sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Controversies
2017
Lawrence Tallis, the creative director of
Big Balls Films (which launched
COPA90), questioned whether many viewers were watching the channel for analysis of Arsenal or the entertainment.
Similarly, former Manchester United player and
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
pundit
Gary Neville
Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...
criticised Arsenal fans who appeared on the channel for being too harsh on Wenger. "I was watching Arsenal fans slating and slanging into him, and I thought, 'he doesn't deserve that'". ArsenalFanTV later extended an invitation for Neville to discuss his comments on the channel, which he accepted. After Arsenal's 2–2 draw against
Manchester City
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
in April 2017, many Arsenal supporters attempted to attack Robbie as well as other regulars such as Claude.
That same month, ArsenalFanTV came under criticism for a video they posted in association with ''
The Sun'' newspaper. The video, which featured Lyle, DT and Ty, received backlash from many football fans, especially
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
supporters, who have boycotted ''The Sun'' due to its controversial reporting of the 1989
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...
which killed 97 Liverpool fans, which included allegations of Liverpool fans urinating on police officers and pickpocketing dying supporters. Liverpool had recently banned the newspaper from attending press conferences and
Everton followed suit following an article posted about
Ross Barkley
Ross Barkley (born 5 December 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Nice.
Barkley began his professional career at Everton in 2010. After loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United he b ...
which had compared him to a gorilla and was considered offensive due to his grandfather's Nigerian heritage. In response to the criticism, Lyle appeared on the ''Ball Street'' YouTube channel and apologised to the people of Liverpool for any offence that was taken and has promised to not work with the tabloid in the future with the video having since been deleted from the channel.
Following Arsenal's 2–0 defeat to Tottenham in April 2017, Lyle was escorted out of
White Hart Lane
White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...
with police protection after being abused by many Tottenham fans and was unable to film ArsenalFanTV after that match. In a video afterwards, Lyle stated that much of the abuse he received was racist and was not something he experienced for years. Tottenham Hotspur condemned any racial abuse and was working with the
Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
on the issue.
2018
In August 2018, ArsenalFanTV were forced to change their name to AFTV following discussions with Arsenal regarding the channel breaching Arsenal's copyright by using the term "Arsenal" without authorisation which harmed the club.
Some media outlets claimed Arsenal had issued a
cease and desist
A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...
letter against ArsenalFanTV, however, they confirmed this was not true.
2020
In July 2020, contributor
Claude Callegari
Claudio Luciano Ricardo Callegari (19 October 1962 – 29 March 2021) was an English Arsenal supporter and a contributor to the football YouTube channel AFTV. He made his first appearance in 2012 before becoming a regular until 2020. He died on ...
made a racial slur about
South Korean Tottenham Hotspur player Heung-Min Son during a livestream, referring to him as a
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
.
This has been considered a racial slur since at least 2005, referencing the large number of Asian people who sell DVDs around the East London area. After making a video on the platform alongside Lyle in which the issue was discussed but no apology was given, channel sponsor
Harry's
Harry's is an American company that manufactures and sells shaving equipment and men's personal care products via online and retail channels. The company is known for their subscription service where customers receive new razor blades, shaving ...
stated that they would no longer be working with AFTV. Following this, AFTV announced that Callegari would be removed from the channel "indefinitely". During the same livestream, contributor Troopz commented that “
Harry Kane
Harry Edward Kane (born 28 July 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Tottenham Hotspur and captains the England national team. A prolific goalscorer with strong link play, Kane is regarded as one of ...
is white so he must be right”; despite this, no action was taken against Troopz.
In August 2020, AFTV were criticised during a livestream of the
2020 FA Cup Final
The 2020 FA Cup Final, known officially as the Heads Up FA Cup Final, was an association football match played behind closed doors between Arsenal and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium in London, England on 1 August 2020; it was originally scheduled ...
after some fans celebrated when
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
player
Christian Pulisic
Christian Mate Pulisic (; hr, Pulišić, ; born September 18, 1998) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for club Chelsea and the United States national team. Pulisic is renowned for his d ...
was injured and had to be taken off.
See also
*
Arsenal Supporters' Trust
The Arsenal Supporters' Trust is the official supporters' trust of Arsenal Football Club, as recognised by Supporters Direct. The group, like other supporters' trusts, seeks to strengthen the influence of supporters over the destiny of their clubs ...
References
{{reflist, 30em
YouTube channels launched in 2012
Arsenal F.C. mass media
English-language YouTube channels
Entertainment-related YouTube channels
Sports-related YouTube channels