Welcome to the new Kick Off!

Like so many of you, I fell in love with the beautiful game as soon as I could walk. My dad took me to my first professional game when I was five years old and I have been going ever since. My dream from that day on was to be involved in football, and obviously as a professional player. My playing and love for the game was supplemented by reading everything I could find on football and in particular South African football. There was no internet in those days, so magazines, newspapers and books on football became my constant companions. I loved those pages. About 25 years ago, I decided to sell my business in the stock market and to follow my dream and to get involved in football, to do what I loved. What very few people know is that KICK OFF was to a certain extent the reason for the birth of Soccer Laduma almost 21 years ago. At that time KICK OFF was by far the country’s best football publication. I was an avid reader and I knew the publisher Rob Moore very well. I went to see him about my idea to start a soccer newspaper, Soccer Laduma, and wanted KICK OFF to be my partner. He politely turned me down and started Soccer Laduma on my own and as they say the rest is history. In later years, Media 24 bought KICK OFF in its entirety and also later bought a share in Soccer Laduma. A few weeks ago, my partners Media 24 asked if we would take over KICK OFF and have it as part of the Soccer Laduma stable. We jumped at the opportunity. It is an obvious good mix and a marriage made in heaven. What we guarantee you is that KICK OFF will follow the same guiding principle that has helped make Soccer Laduma the biggest newspaper in the country. Namely, that you the reader are our boss and that we must move heaven and earth to make you, our boss, happy. From an editorial point view the similarity will the love of football. content, however, be very different. You find that the look in issue has changed but change you will see going forward is that because KICK OFF is a monthly, we will be able to dissect and analyse the state of your favourite clubs, SAFA and the PSL in more depth. The KICK OFF digital platform will also be given love and a new editorial direction. Your input is the most important thing for us. If you have any ideas, requests, criticism, praise or questions, please email me at peter@kickoff.com. We love KICK OFF and Soccer Laduma and we love producing soccer content for you. Thanks.