2019–20 Belgian First Division A

The 2019–20 Belgian First Division A (officially known as Jupiler Pro League) was the 117th season of top-tier football in Belgium.

Belgian First Division A

Season	2019–20
Dates	26 July 2019 – 7 March 2020
Champions	Club Brugge
Champions League	Club Brugge Gent
Europa League	Charleroi Antwerp Standard Liège
Matches played	232
Goals scored	658 (2.84 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jonathan David Dieumerci Mbokani (18 goals each)
Biggest home win	Anderlecht 7–0 Zulte Waregem (7 March 2020)
Biggest away win	Mechelen 0–5 Club Brugge (28 September 2019)
Longest winning run	5 matches Club Brugge
Longest unbeaten run	15 matches Club Brugge
Longest winless run	9 matches Waasland-Beveren
Longest losing run	5 matches Cercle Brugge
Highest attendance	Regular season 26,769[1] Club Brugge 1–1 Genk (1 September 2019)
Lowest attendance	Regular season 2,154[1] Eupen 1–1 Waasland-Beveren (2 August 2019)
Total attendance	1,011,903
Average attendance	Regular season 10,765
← 2018–19 2020–21 → All statistics correct as of 6 October 2019.

On 2 April 2020, the Jupiler Pro League's board of directors agreed to propose to cancel the season early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Should this proposal be accepted, Club Brugge will be awarded the title.^[2] In the meantime UEFA has threatened to ban teams in Europe in case their respective leagues were terminated early without trying to have all remaining matches completed.^[3] The decision of whether to accept this proposal was initially meant to be decided by a vote at a meeting on 15 April 2020, but had been postponed three times.^[4]

The proposal was finally accepted by the General Assembly on 15 May 2020, confirming Club Brugge as 2019–20 First Division A champions.^[5]

Team changes

As 2018–19 Belgian First Division B champions, Mechelen would have replaced relegated Lokeren. However, as part of the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal, Mechelen were found guilty of match-fixing at the end of the 2017–18 season, resulting in the club being relegated back to the First Division B and runners-up Beerschot taking the spot of Mechelen instead. Mechelen appealed the decision with the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sports, which confirmed that KV Mechelen was indeed guilty of match-fixing, but that according to the rules of the Royal Belgian Football Association, relegation is no longer a possible penalty as the match-fixing occurred more than one season ago. KV Mechelen was thus allowed to play in the Belgian First Division A, but did get banned from participating in the UEFA Europa League and the Belgian Cup for one season.

Format change

While the regular season remains unchanged, the end of season play-offs have been altered somewhat, specifically the Europa League play-offs will now be played by 16 instead of 12 teams. Taking part will be the bottom ten teams together with the six top teams from the Belgian First Division B, to be divided in four groups of four teams. The four group winners will play semi-finals and a final to determine the team which will play the fourth (or fifth) placed team from the championship play-offs for the remaining ticket into the UEFA Europa League. This change allows both the team relegating from the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A and the 2019–20 Belgian First Division B champion to take part in the Europa League play-offs, allowing these teams to bridge the gap of nearly six months without any matches as used to be the case in previous seasons.^[6]

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Anderlecht

Antwerp

Charleroi

Bruges

Genk

Gent

Kortrijk

Mechelen

Standard Liège

Eupen

Oostende

Mouscron

Sint-Truiden

Waasland-
Beveren

Zulte Waregem

Bruges teams
Cercle Brugge
Club Brugge

Locations of the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A teams

Matricule	Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
35	Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium	21,500
1	Antwerp	Antwerp	Bosuilstadion	12,975
12	Cercle Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
22	Charleroi	Charleroi	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	14,000
3	Club Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
4276	Eupen	Eupen	Kehrwegstadion	08,363
322	Genk	Genk	Luminus Arena	24,956
7	Gent	Ghent	Ghelamco Arena	20,000
19	Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Guldensporen Stadion	09,399
25	Mechelen	Mechelen	AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne	16,700
216	Mouscron	Mouscron	Stade Le Canonnier	10,571
31	Oostende	Ostend	Versluys Arena	08,432
373	Sint-Truiden	Sint-Truiden	Stayen	14,600
16	Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,023
4068	Waasland-Beveren	Beveren	Freethiel Stadion	08,190
5381	Zulte Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	12,500

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Anderlecht	Vincent Kompany (player/manager) and Franky Vercauteren[n 1]	Joma	BNP Paribas Fortis
Antwerp	László Bölöni	Jako	Ghelamco
Cercle Brugge	Bernd Storck[n 2]	Erima [de]	Napoleon Games
Charleroi	Karim Belhocine	Kappa	Proximus
Club Brugge	Philippe Clement	Macron	Unibet
Eupen	Beñat San José	Nike	Aspire Academy
Excel Mouscron	Bernd Hollerbach[n 3]	Uhlsport	Star Casino
Genk	Hannes Wolf[n 4]	Nike	Beobank
Gent	Jess Thorup	Craft	Vdk bank
Kortrijk	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Jako	AGO Jobs & HR
Mechelen	Wouter Vrancken	Jartazi	Telenet
Oostende	Adnan Čustović[n 5]	Joma	DIAZ Be
Sint-Truiden	Miloš Kostić[n 6]	Umbro	Golden Palace
Standard Liège	Michel Preud'homme	New Balance	VOO
Waasland-Beveren	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker) [n 7]	Uhlsport	Star Casino
Zulte-Waregem	Francky Dury	Patrick	Willy Naessens Group

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Oostende	Franky Van der Elst (caretaker)	Replaced	End of 2018–19 season	Pre-season	Kåre Ingebrigtsen	6 May 2019[7]
Mouscron	Bernd Storck	End of contract	End of 2018–19 season		Bernd Hollerbach	22 May 2019[8]
Anderlecht	Karim Belhocine (caretaker)	Replaced	End of 2018–19 season		Simon Davies and Vincent Kompany	25 May 2019[9] and 19 May 2019[10]
Club Brugge	Ivan Leko	End of contract[11]	End of 2018–19 season		Philippe Clement	24 May 2019[12]
Genk	Philippe Clement	Moved to Club Brugge[12]	End of 2018–19 season		Felice Mazzù	3 June 2019[13]
Cercle Brugge	José Jeunechamps (caretaker)	End of caretaker spell[14]	End of 2018–19 season		Fabien Mercadal	19 June 2019[15]
Charleroi	Felice Mazzù	Moved to Genk[13]	End of 2018–19 season		Karim Belhocine	21 June 2019[16]
Eupen	Claude Makélélé	Mutual consent	14 June 2019[17]		Beñat San José	24 June 2019[18]
Waasland-Beveren	Adnan Čustović	Sacked	26 August 2019[19]	16th	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	26 August 2019[19]
Waasland-Beveren	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	2 September 2019[n 8][20]	16th	Arnauld Mercier	2 September 2019[20]
Anderlecht	Simon Davies	Replaced	3 October 2019[n 9][21]	13th	Jonas De Roeck (caretaker)	3 October 2019
Anderlecht	Jonas De Roeck (caretaker)	Replaced	7 October 2019[21]	13th	Franky Vercauteren	7 October 2019
Cercle Brugge	Fabien Mercadal	Sacked	7 October 2019[22]	16th	Bernd Storck	12 October 2019[23]
Genk	Felice Mazzù	Sacked	12 November 2019[24]	9th	Hannes Wolf	18 November 2019[25]
Sint-Truiden	Marc Brys	Sacked	25 November 2019[26]	11th	Nicky Hayen (caretaker)	25 November 2019[26]
Oostende	Kåre Ingebrigtsen	Became manager at APOEL FC	28 December 2019[27]	14th	Dennis van Wijk	31 December 2019[28]
Sint-Truiden	Nicky Hayen (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	2 January 2020[29]	11th	Miloš Kostić	2 January 2020[29]
Mouscron	Bernd Hollerbach	Temporarily replaced due to illness	5 February 2020[30]	11th	Philippe Saint-Jean (caretaker)	5 February 2020[30]
Waasland-Beveren	Arnauld Mercier	Sacked	23 February 2020[31]	16th	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	23 February 2020[31]
Mouscron	Philippe Saint-Jean (caretaker)	Hollerbach recovered from illness	25 February 2020[32]	10th	Bernd Hollerbach	25 February 2020[32]
Oostende	Dennis van Wijk	Sacked	2 March 2020[33]	15th	Adnan Čustović	3 March 2020[34]

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Club Brugge (C)	29	21	7	1	58	14	+44	70	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Gent	29	16	7	6	59	34	+25	55	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
3	Charleroi	29	15	9	5	49	23	+26	54	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
4	Antwerp (Y)	29	15	8	6	49	32	+17	53	Qualification for the Europa League group stage[a]
5	Standard Liège	29	14	7	8	47	32	+15	49	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
6	Mechelen	29	13	5	11	46	43	+3	44
7	Genk	29	13	5	11	45	42	+3	44
8	Anderlecht	29	11	10	8	45	29	+16	43
9	Zulte Waregem	29	10	6	13	41	49	−8	36
10	Excel Mouscron	29	9	9	11	38	40	−2	36
11	Kortrijk	29	9	6	14	40	44	−4	33
12	Sint-Truiden	29	9	6	14	36	53	−17	33
13	Eupen	29	8	6	15	28	51	−23	30
14	Cercle Brugge	29	7	2	20	27	54	−27	23
15	Oostende	29	6	4	19	29	58	−29	22
16	Waasland-Beveren[b] (T)	29	5	5	19	21	60	−39	20	Reprieved from relegation

Source: Belgian First Division A (in Dutch), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Away matches won; 7) Play-off.^[36]
(C) Champions; (T) Reprieved; (Y) Croky Cup winner
Notes:

1. Antwerp qualified for the Europa League group stage as the 2019–20 Belgian Cup winners.^[35]
2. Waasland-Beveren would have been relegated due to finishing last, however following legal proceedings the Belgian Pro League eventually voted in favour of expanding the 2020–21 Belgian First Division A to 18 teams, meaning Waasland-Beveren was spared and both OH Leuven and Beerschot were promoted from the 2019–20 Belgian First Division B.

Results

Home \ Away	AND	ANT	CER	CHA	CLU	EUP	EXM	GNK	GNT	KVK	KVM	OOS	STA	STR	W-B	ZWA
Anderlecht	—	1–2	2–1	0–0	1–2	6–1	1–0	2–0	3–3	0–0	0–0	1–2	1–0	4–1	0–0	7–0
Antwerp	0–0	—	3–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	—	1–1	3–2	3–1	1–0	3–1	2–2	2–0	4–1	2–1
Cercle Brugge	1–2	1–2	—	0–3	0–2	1–2	2–2	1–2	1–0	1–3	3–2	—	0–2	2–1	1–0	2–0
Charleroi	1–2	2–1	3–0	—	0–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	—	2–1	5–0	2–0	0–3	2–0	4–0
Club Brugge	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	—	0–0	1–0	1–1	4–0	3–0	3–0	2–0	1–1	6–0	2–1	4–0
Eupen	0–0	1–4	1–0	1–1	—	—	2–1	2–0	2–3	1–2	0–2	1–0	1–2	0–2	1–1	1–1
Excel Mouscron	0–0	3–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	2–0	—	2–2	2–1	2–0	1–2	3–1	2–2	1–3	1–0	2–2
Genk	1–0	2–2	1–0	1–0	1–2	2–1	2–1	—	0–2	2–1	—	3–1	1–3	1–2	4–1	0–2
Gent	1–1	1–1	3–2	1–4	1–1	6–1	3–1	4–1	—	2–0	3–0	2–0	3–1	4–1	2–0	2–0
Kortrijk	4–2	0–1	1–0	1–1	2–2	1–2	1–2	0–1	0–2	—	2–3	2–2	3–1	4–0	1–3	2–0
Mechelen	2–0	3–1	3–1	2–2	0–5	1–1	2–2	3–1	0–3	1–1	—	1–0	2–3	1–2	4–0	0–2
Oostende	3–2	1–1	3–1	0–1	0–2	2–3	2–2	2–4	2–1	0–3	2–1	—	1–4	1–0	0–1	1–1
Standard Liège	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–0	3–0	4–1	1–0	0–1	2–1	1–2	2–1	—	0–0	2–0	4–0
Sint-Truiden	—	1–1	0–1	1–3	1–2	5–2	0–1	3–3[a]	0–0	2–0	0–3	1–0	2–1	—	1–1	0–0
Waasland-Beveren	0–3	0–4	1–1	0–4	1–3	0–1	1–1	0–4	—	1–2	1–3	3–1	2–1	1–0	—	1–2
Zulte Waregem	1–2	2–0	6–0	3–1	0–2	1–0	1–2	0–3	2–2	2–2	0–2	2–0	—	5–1	5–0	—

Source: Belgian Pro League (in Dutch)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. The match between Sint-Truiden and Genk was suspended with the score at 3–3 due to supporter violence. Initially, no points were awarded and the Belgian FA demanded to replay the match entirely behind closed doors and further penalize both clubs with an additional match behind closed doors, a two points penalty and a fine of 5000 Euro.^[37] On 4 December 2019, after both clubs had appealed the decision citing an incorrectly followed procedure in which the referee had stopped the match too soon, the final verdict was that the 3–3 result stood as final and both clubs were penalized 5000 Euro and were forced to play their next home match with part of their stand closed.^[38]

Season statistics

Top scorers As of matches played on 7 March 2020.[39] Rank Player Club Goals 1 Dieumerci Mbokani Antwerp 18 Jonathan David Gent 3 Hans Vanaken Club Brugge 13 4 Kaveh Rezaei Charleroi 12 5 Lior Refaelov Antwerp 11 6 Roman Yaremchuk Gent 10 Michel Vlap Anderlecht Igor de Camargo Mechelen 9 Gianni Bruno Zulte Waregem 9 Clean sheets As of matches played on 7 March 2020.[40] Rank Player Club Clean sheets 1 Simon Mignolet Club Brugge 16 2 Nicolas Penneteau Charleroi 12 Hendrik Van Crombrugge Anderlecht 4 Thomas Kaminski Gent 9 5 Sammy Bossut Zulte Waregem 8 Arnaud Bodart Standard Liège 7 Ortwin De Wolf Eupen 6 8 Daniel Schmidt Sint-Truiden 5 Sinan Bolat Antwerp 10 Gaëtan Coucke Genk 4

Top assists As of matches played on 7 March 2020.[41] Rank Player Club Assists 1 Ruud Vormer Club Brugge 14 2 Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe Gent 9 3 Jonathan David Gent 8 4 Mehdi Carcela Standard Liège 7 Danijel Milićević Eupen Junya Ito Genk 7 Facundo Colidio Sint-Truiden 6 Ali Gholizadeh Charleroi Nikola Storm Mechelen Onur Kaya Mechelen

Notes

1. Previous managers at Anderlecht during the 2019–20 season include Simon Davies & Vincent Kompany (matchday 1 to 9) and caretaker Jonas De Roeck & Vincent Kompany on matchday 10. Kompany & Vercauteren have been in charge from matchday 11.
2. Prior to Storck, Fabien Mercadal was in charge for matchdays 1 through 10.
3. Hollerbach started the season at Excel Mouscron but became ill, with his duties taken over since matchday 22 by sports advisor Rudi Vata, without Vata being appointed officially as manager. For matchdays 24 through 27, Philippe Saint-Jean was in charge, having been appointed as caretaker manager. After having recovered, Hollerbach took up his position again from matchday 28.
4. Felice Mazzù was in charge for matchdays 1 through 15, although Genk had at that point only played 14 matches as the away match at Antwerp had been postponed.
5. Kåre Ingebrigtsen was in charge for matchdays 1 through 21. For matchdays 22 through 28, Dennis van Wijk took over before being replaced by Adnan Čustović
6. Marc Brys was in charge for matchdays 1 through 16, while Nicky Hayen held the caretaker position for matchdays 17 through 20.
7. Previous managers at Waasland-Beveren during the 2019–20 season include Adnan Čustović (matchday 1 to 5), caretaker Dirk Geeraerd on matchday 6, Arnauld Mercier (matchday 7 to 27) and again Geeraerd from matchday 28.
8. The announcement of Mercier coming in was made on 30 August 2019, however Geeraerd remained caretaker for the match of 31 August against Charleroi and Mercier would start the job only on September 2nd.
9. The announcement of Vercauteren coming in was made on 3 October 2019, however Jonas De Roeck was appointed caretaker manager for the match of 4 October 2019 against Charleroi and Vercauteren would start the job only on October 7th.