Can Fan Channels facilitate ever-lasting integration between football clubs and football fans?

\Arsenal Fan TV created a new category and a surprisingly powerful one. Many of us have tuned in to watch a pissed off fan after their team plays 5 at the back and gets thrashed, but beyond the bravado, it’s worth asking what real change this space can facilitate in creating a strengthened link between football clubs and football fans.

In a recent Arsenal Fan TV YouTube video, Founder Robbie Lyle & outspoken Gooner, DT, discussed the recent signing of Nicolas Pepe. In this video, Robbie posed a question about whether the organised fan petition #WeCareDoYou, aimed at Arsenal ownership, facilitated this record-breaking transfer. We don’t know the answer at the moment, but a chronology of events argue that it may have.

T-2 / #WeCareDoYou Petition is signed and get’s media traction and support from many Arsenal supporter organisation and fans

T-1 / The Kroenke administration formally replies, issuing a statement asking Arsenal fans to ‘be excited’ about transfers in the offing

T / Arsenal sign Nicolas Pepe for a record club fee of ￡72 Million

The argument may be tenuous that the deployment of funds was linked to the petition, but the fact that the statement was formally responded to, is something to be noticed.

In another recent Arsenal Fan TV podcast, just after the club hit the 1 Million Subscriber mark, Robbie Lyle bullishly said, ‘we’re just getting started’. It’s entirely possible he wasn’t referring to more subscribers, but more about the evolution of Fan Channels within the football landscape. It’s not a crazy thought, given the reach and distribution these channels, and their fans have on social media and traditional media outlets alike (Sky Sports & Soccer AM to name a few…)

Taking the base hypothesis that football fan channels will continue to grow, what are some of the ways they will integrate with official football clubs? Well, football clubs may not be able to ignore fans much longer, and it could be a mandate for Chief Executives & Owners alike to appear on fan channel interviews throughout the year, to bridge the obvious communication gap that exists when the conversation is limited to formal statements.

Going further, an anointed fan, say Robbie Lyle (if we use Arsenal as an example), could have access to certain official club meetings, and represent the voice of the fan at those tables. Owners are often accused of not understanding the voice of the fan, and what better way to bridge that gap by involving the fan in the decision-making process, or at least to explain the decisions to them. Fans can be fickle to some extent, and come to hasty conclusions, which could be diffused by having someone on the inside.

Finally, there’s something to be said about ownership structures that don’t allow equity to be owned by the fans. Maybe this isn’t related to fan channels, but the link between football fan and club would be certainly strengthened if the fan-owned a portion of the club they adored.

Interesting times we’re seeing in the evolution of the football club communication, and fan channels have a lot to thank for that. They’ve blown off the lid that used to be so firmly shut with owner blanket statements, and have said, we want to hear the truth because if not, we will tell it to the world. Football owners should be, and hopefully, are strategising about how they can use this space as an opportunity to strengthen broken or forgotten links between the fan & the football club.

Watch this space.