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AFTV (formerly known as ArsenalFanTV) is a football fan
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...
channel and website directed at supporters of Arsenal F.C. Based in
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, 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 player ...
.


History

The channel was created in October 2012 and was founded by former
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radio host Robbie Lyle; Lyle had worked as a surveyor 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. 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 football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
, Arsenal's local rivals. When asked by
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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
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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 in 2013 and Troopz in 2017 following Arsenal's 5–1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Much of the anger from supporters on the channel was directed towards former manager Arsène Wenger, 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 w ...
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
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by the former
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international
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when he mentioned the frustration of Arsenal supporters with Wenger on ArsenalFanTV in 2016. On 20 April 2018,
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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 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
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 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
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words such as "blud" and "fam". In September 2020, Troopz announced his departure from AFTV to join
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in
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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 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 populat ...
supporters, who have boycotted ''The Sun'' due to its controversial reporting of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster 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
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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
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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 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 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 kind ...
. 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 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 (sport), behind closed doors between Arsenal F.C., Arsenal and Chelsea F.C., Chelsea at Wembley Stadium in London, ...
after some fans celebrated when
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player Christian Pulisic was injured and had to be taken off.


See also

* Arsenal Supporters' Trust


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