- Club ranked 18th in African Digital Media
- Kaizer Chiefs invites Popa’s technical team to benchmark in SA
THABANG REGOENG
BTC Premiership champions Township Rollers’ success on the pitch is being matched by its activities off the field, with their brand experiencing a meteoric rise. Buoyed by the club’s unprecedented financial strength, a large fan base and a range of sponsorship deals, Popa has ingrained itself as one of the top brands in African Digital Media.
In a study conducted by German based digital sports media platform, Result Sports, Mapalastina are currently ranked 18th across Africa in digital media platform. Mapalastina are in the company of top African football sides in Al Ahli, Zamalek, Raja Club Athletic,TP Mazembe and Gor Mahia in the top 20 standings.
According to reports the ranking takes into account clubs’ combined following on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, You Tube and Google in order to quantify each club’s digital community and their cumulative following across digital media. Popa’s digital marketing is unparalleled in local football with 213,117 likes on Facebook while the club’s Twitter handle has 9,618 followers.
Their club website is second to none domestically with regular updates on team performances in local competitions and an in depth information about the technical team and squad players.
Meanwhile, information relayed to this publication is that Nikola Kavazovic has been tasked with defending the BTC Premiership title, Mascom Top 8 trophy and reach the group stages of the CAF Champions League. It could be a difficult task for the Serbian coach to accomplish in his first season but the pre season friendlies against Kaizer Chiefs have drawn out a positive outlook.
Additionally, the club has embarked on a beneficiary relationship with the South African giants. In their recent pre season tour in Africa, Amakhosi conducted charity work at Satellite Primary School and Tshwaragano Rehabilitation Orphans as part of social responsibility. Amakhosi’s football Managing Director Bobby Motaung lauded the solid relationship between the two clubs in the past 2 years.
“We played a CAF Champions League tie against Rollers in early 2015, and from that time on the two clubs built a relationship. Rollers have visited us in Johannesburg for match practice sessions and we have come here to Francistown for the friendly match. We have agreed that Rollers will send some of their staff to benchmark at Chiefs, the technical, administrative, communications and security side of things ,” Motaung told Popa’s club website.
The principle of team work has down the years been espoused in the Rollers motto of ‘Popa Popa e a ipopa’ making it no surprise to see the club rubbing shoulders with Africa’s elite clubs.