Rollers: A brand frequently dragged through the mud
Mqondisi Dube | Monday October 6, 2025 06:00
Rollers' recent history makes a perfect script for bitter-sweet reading. From relegation to the First Division in 2004, to bouncing back the following season to win a memorable league and cup double, Popa have taken fans through the high tide to the lowest ebbs.
The swinging mode of emotions has seen Rollers become a dominant force, whilst at the same time flying into a period of uncertainty.
After the 2005 feat, achieved under the late Banks Panene, it appeared the Popa plane was firmly cruising and the First Division debacle had been relegated to the rear view mirror.
There was a relatively quiet trophy period between 2006 and 2009 when Police XI, ECCO City Greens, Mochudi Centre Chiefs, and Gaborone United took the league shine in successive seasons.
But the best of Rollers were yet to come in a dominant eight-year period between 2010 and 2018, when the club won seven league titles to underline their dominance.
However, in between there were worrying signs brought about by a new fashion wave in local football: privatisation. Rollers, like most community clubs, had soldiered on under an archaic but enduring society model, where gate takings and prize money were the cornerstones of the teams' survival.
But the environment was rapidly changing and demanded a more professional approach, a sharp departure from running clubs from the boot of a car.
Rollers were amongst the leading clubs that embraced the early changes, with former director, Sommerset Gobuiwang, at the heart of the transition.
Gobuiwang introduced to the Rollers family, a man who was to completely revolutionise the culture of running, not just Rollers, but football administration in Botswana, Jagdish Shah. Nicolas Zakhem was his immediate comparison across town at Gaborone United.
With the arrival of the businessman, Rollers became the quintessential model club. It transformed into the envy of many, and this translated to unmatched performances on the pitch.
It brought domestic success whilst the club also reached the group stages of the CAF Champions League in 2018, due reward for their off-the-field heavy investment orchestrated by Shah.
But just five seasons later, Rollers, from the lofty standards, crashed to the ground as boardroom battles took centre stage and, unlike a good dancer, appeared not to know where to leave.
Internal fights forced Shah out, and living on the premise that 'Rollers was there, will always be there', the businessman's departure was trivialised by his critics at Rollers.
Rollers would survive, was the defiant, Comical Ali-type of mantra. Yes, survive, Rollers did, but worrying signs started to emerge. The club was never the same, and success on the pitch dried up with the last league title coming in 2018. Since then, Popa have struggled to replicate the Shah-era form. Then came the short-lived Jimmy Kereng era which did not yield much, followed by the controversial departure of Zimbabwean businessman, Tendani Sebata, who left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Rollers executive.
It has been boardroom wrangle after boardroom wrangle, and two years after the messy divorce with Shah, Rollers touched a new low last week when the team boycotted a league match against Calendar Stars over unpaid salaries.
It was a rare piece of history for the modern-time Rollers. The match boycott represented another chapter of a brand that has been dragged through contrasting emotions.
Supporters, like they used to do back in the day, had to dip their hands in their pockets to try and rescue a situation.
But whilst those who have seen Rollers before would argue that this is nothing new, it is an anomaly in an age when their biggest town rivals, Gaborone United, are the epitome of boardroom stability, whilst other clubs are making strides towards the professional running of their teams.
Failure to pay players and fulfil a fixture will hit the club hard and remind the dyed-in-the-wool fan of the 'seven years of abundance'.
It is a golden era many Rollers fans would want to be transported back to with immediate effect. To their consolation, like the Castle Lager, the famous South African beer brand's slogan, Rollers have stood the test of time and probably stand ready to weather another violent storm.