Simon Jordan vs AFTV

Serious topic.

I’m seeing a lot of people go after Simon Jordan on talksport, after he blamed Arsenal hatred on AFTV, Robbie, Troopz and all the rest of these guys. Personally, I think that’s a cop out as Arsenal hatred isn’t new and has been going on for decades but that’s besides the point.

What I take issue with though, is the double standard that Simon uses. He talks about how AFTV have characters that annoy everyone, yet you have people like Jamie O Hara and Jason Cundy organising hate watches for Arsenal in the Champions League final, or him saying his famous line ‘haaaaaassssssss anybody seen Arsenal’ after a loss. Are they not equally annoying? By his logic, we should blame Arsenal hate on them too, no?

Plus, Talk sport themselves as an organisation have hired YouTube content creators such as Flex and Abbi Summers. Whether we like it or not, AFTV opened a path for the average person to have a platform and share their thoughts on their respective clubs. Yes AFTV have made mistakes but so have all organisations. It’s ironic that talk sport and Simon have the audacity to criticise AFTV in the way they did, whilst simultaneously hiring content creators directly inspired by his success.

For me, it comes across as quite elitist when you have Simon speaking about characters on AFTV in a negative light, as if he gets to decide what a ‘positive’, ideal fan should look like.

There’s also the fact that he’s highlighted Goldbridge as a good example of what a content creator should look like, when he does similar style watchalongs to AFTV. This has led many to believe that there is a racial undertone to his comments. As a black man myself, I’m not going to directly assume or accuse him of this, but I can’t rule it out. He’s criticised AFTV and their hosts/figures - many of whom are black - but singles out Goldbridge, as a white man, as a positive example.

If you don’t like AFTV fair enough. But let’s not pretend as if mainstream radio is much better these days.