Football fans attacking Youtube fan channels

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Marvin

Well-Known Member
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9 Jan 2006
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I have noticed in the last few weeks that Arsenal Fan TV and United Stand Youtube presenters have been confronted by their own fans after games when they've been filming.

What do you think about this?

The interview below summarises the situation and articulates it from the Youtube presenters point of view



I know these channels are set up on a commercial basis to make and it might be a good career option for people who are good at speaking. You can see some of the presenters going to work for football clubs and more traditional football media but what do ordinary fans make of their influence. Are they good or bad?

I like them because I can use them to get an idea about what fans of a certain club are thinking.

However, is there a down-side to them. Are they toxic? Can they destabilise a club's fanbase to the extent that they make it very very difficult for players and manager to work? Look at Arsenal. If you watch their games, you can hear their fans screaming all kinds of abuse at their players, and their channel gets huge viewing figures. It's very influential.

I don't think there's anything wrong with them but I would like to hear opinions. I do think that they make football supporters more emboldened and volatile and influential but that is not a bad thing.

It would also be interesting to know how viable they are commercially. Are the popular fan channels making money? There's a proliferation of them.

Man Utd have loads of them:

Fulltimedevils, United Stand, United Central. Then each of their presenters have their own channels on top.
 
Same fans on those channels all the time they are echo chambers, in particular when Arsenal lose the bluds come out screaming for Kroenkes head and swear a lot. If I were an Arsenal fan they would probably piss me off too, as it is I am not and they are a goldmine for taking the piss out of.
 
People generally only watch those channels to take the piss out of the team (we all love AFTV when Arsenal are nose diving and same with that United pleb “give it giggsy until the end of the season”).

It’s great for revenue creation for the channel and self promotion for their regular contributors but it doesn’t exactly do anything for the club or the normal supporters watching (other than act as yet another way their fan base can have the piss ripped out of it). It’s all rather self serving and I can fully understand why normal fans would tell them to fuck off after a while, especially after a loss.
 
Blue tube said:
All social media is toxic, in everyway. Look at the state of this place at times
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At the moment City are a well run football club, or a successful club. By and large the fans are happy, but not at Arsenal or Man Utd. There the fans are unhappy and it's evident that there are issues with the owners. These Youtube channels provide a very effective way for fans to communicate and spread ideas. The ideas themselves can be good or bad and that depends on the contributors. On Bluemoon, after a defeat all kinds of opinions are raised.

The one area where I think there is a difference between fan channels and football message boards is that the incentive to be controversial and emotional is much much greater with fan channels. Reasoned low-key argument can be boring for the neutral but if the presenter is screaming and emotional it becomes watchable (until you get bored with it) so there is an incentive for fan channels to promote dissent to attract views.

I enjoy watching them, particularly the vlog diaries of match days, but I watch them more when a rival club loses.

Football is tribal, and part of the enjoyment is seeing your rival club struggle.

I can honestly say though that my impression of Arsenal fans has gone upwards a lot because of their fan channel. I had thought that Arsenal were a Southern club who had lost touch with their roots and were followed by yuppies but it's completely the opposite. These fans are very down to earth, and well-spoken. There are good and bad.

It's essentially fan opinion which has the potential to be distorted by commercial considerations. It's far more likely to be on the button though than views and opinions from Fleet St journalists. Indeed it makes their writing completely redundant. Why would you read what some none-fan thinks of your club, I'd far rather listen to rival fans.

I can understand that if they support OGS and a lot of fans are saying OGS out, then that might make them angry but you should be able to pick the mic up and respond. You don't have to hit someone. There probably is an argument that opinion can be distorted by the need to make an impact but at heart the arguments are genuine, and authentic. If they weren't, you would be able to tell straight away.

We don't have these issues at Man City but it's worth noting what is happening at other football clubs and seeing what the issues are.
 
Pablo1 said:
Just looks like an awful lot of bellends to me.
Fuck all to do with fans having a voice and more to do with making money.
Click to expand...
It might be. I don't think they all are. SOme are just individual fans who go to a game and instead of blogging and writing on message boards like this, they vlog it instead. It's the next step as we all have got mobile phones now. Really good training too. Great skill to be able to talk about something you love.

I do agree though that making money could distort the content. Does it though? Arsenal fans had, or have a real issue. So do Man Utd fans. Green and gold campaign, Glazers Out etc was going a long time before they came along. In fact you could argue that FT Devils, and Utd Stand have kept out of all that. They are pretty mainstream imo. Arsenal Fan TV are on the other hand very hostile to their owner, but why wouldn't you be. City fans went through that decades ago.

To be any good at a role like that you have to be sociable and respectful of other people so I don't think they are bellends.
 
They only work (do very well) when there is a very polarizing topic, like Wenger out, or when they are a bunch of bell ends and people view to laugh at them, like Goldbridge.

I know @twosips has done some vids in the past but TBH i doubt many general fans want to watch vids of city fans going on about how good our team is. What is good for a fan channel is generally not great for a fan base / club. Its general fans laughing at arse holes or clubs in crisis that get the big clicks and can then make money and be sustainable. Cheesmans' vlogs are a niche thing - most city fans know him from GMR days and appreciate his views and the perspective his vids bring especially to aways. I doubt many non city fans tune in to him and I wouldn't want a City equivalent of Goldgbridge who is a clown.
 
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