How football has changed in 28 years
Three points for a win introduced
When KICK OFF was launched in February 1994, teams in the South African league still earned two points for a win and one for a draw.
England was the first nation to award three points for a win in their domestic league all the way back in 1981, but it is fair to say it did not catch on around the world.
The idea is that teams will be more attacking and take more chances if they can get three points for a victory versus one for a draw. That reasoning is sound and probably has resulted better viewing for fans.
A few countries followed suit after England, but it wasn’t until FIFA introduced it at the 1994 World Cup in the United States that leagues around the world started to take it on board.
One of those was South Africa’s National Soccer League, who introduced it for the 1995 season, joining the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany in doing so that year.
The first time it was introduced at the Africa Cup of Nations was in the 1996 tournament that South Africa hosted.
South Africa’s exports grow
South African players had long plied their trade abroad with the likes of Fani Madida, John ‘Shoes’Moshoeu, Pitso Mosimane, Eric Tinkler and August Makalakalane
