In all, 43 000 tickets were pre-sold for this past weekend's Soweto derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, shattering the myth that South African football fans only buy tickets at the gate during big matches.

Premier Soccer League (PSL) Chief Executive Trevor Phillips this week praised football fans for heeding the call of buying tickets before the match, and not at FNB Stadium.

"I am delighted to see that so many fans bought their tickets beforehand. It is a sign that South African football is moving with the times,” Phillips said.

"I hope that we can keep up this trend, and over time we can have a situation where fans will arrive at the stadium with their tickets that they have bought beforehand. It will certainly make everybody’s life a lot easier.”

Saturdays pre-match sales of 44 000 beat the record of 33 000, that was sold before the 2001 Coca Cola Cup final between Kaizer Chiefs and Jomo Cosmos. In that match, Chiefs beat Cosmos 5-0.

For Saturday’s match, which was won 2-0 by Chiefs, 24 293 tickets were sold between March 8 and 14, the day before the match.

On the day of the match, Computicket sold 19 001 tickets, while 17 131 tickets were sold at the stadium.

The 66 284 fans that attended the match were well-behaved and arrived early for what was a great day of football.

Apart from watching a match between the masters of the two giants, the first 10 000 fans to arrive at the stadium were given helmets in the colours of their clubs.

PSL general manager Bafana Dhlamini commended all the stakeholders for their input on the day. “The fans behaved well, and every detail of the security plan was followed by everybody concerned,” he said.

"It was a good day for football, and hopefully all events will be executed in similar fashion in future."