2019–20 Belgian First Division A

Belgian First Division A 2019–20
Season information
Dates	26 July 2019 – 7 March 2020
Winners	Club Brugge
Relegated	Waasland-Beveren
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Club Brugge Gent
Europa League	Charleroi Antwerp Standard Liège
Season statistics
Matches played	232
Goals scored	658
Top goalscorer	Jonathan David Dieumerci Mbokani (18 goals each)
← 2018–19	2020–21 →

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

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. 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. 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.

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

Team changes

Theoretically, 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 that 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.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

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

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Anderlecht	Vincent Kompany and Franky Vercauteren	Joma	BNP Paribas Fortis
Antwerp	László Bölöni	Jako	Ghelamco
Cercle Brugge	Bernd Storck	Erima	Napoleon Games
Charleroi	Karim Belhocine	Kappa	Proximus
Club Brugge	Philippe Clement	Macron	Unibet
Eupen	Beñat San José	Nike	Aspire Academy
Excel Mouscron	Bernd Hollerbach	Uhlsport	Star Casino
Genk	Hannes Wolf	Nike	Beobank
Gent	Jess Thorup	Craft	Vdk bank
Kortrijk	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Jako	AGO Jobs & HR
Mechelen	Wouter Vrancken	Jartazi	Telenet
Oostende	Adnan Čustović	Joma	DIAZ Be
Sint-Truiden	Miloš Kostić	Umbro	Golden Palace
Standard Liège	Michel Preud'homme	New Balance	VOO
Waasland-Beveren	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	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
Mouscron	Bernd Storck	End of contract	End of 2018–19 season		Bernd Hollerbach	22 May 2019
Anderlecht	Karim Belhocine (caretaker)	Replaced	End of 2018–19 season		Simon Davies and Vincent Kompany	25 May 2019 and 19 May 2019
Club Brugge	Ivan Leko	End of contract	End of 2018–19 season		Philippe Clement	24 May 2019
Genk	Philippe Clement	Moved to Club Brugge	End of 2018–19 season		Felice Mazzù	3 June 2019
Cercle Brugge	José Jeunechamps (caretaker)	End of caretaker spell	End of 2018–19 season		Fabien Mercadal	19 June 2019
Charleroi	Felice Mazzù	Moved to Genk	End of 2018–19 season		Karim Belhocine	21 June 2019
Eupen	Claude Makélélé	Mutual consent	14 June 2019		Beñat San José	24 June 2019
Waasland-Beveren	Adnan Čustović	Sacked	26 August 2019	16th	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	26 August 2019
Waasland-Beveren	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	2 September 2019	16th	Arnauld Mercier	2 September 2019
Anderlecht	Simon Davies	Replaced	3 October 2019	13th	Jonas De Roeck (caretaker)	3 October 2019
Anderlecht	Jonas De Roeck (caretaker)	Replaced	7 October 2019	13th	Franky Vercauteren	7 October 2019
Cercle Brugge	Fabien Mercadal	Sacked	7 October 2019	16th	Bernd Storck	12 October 2019
Genk	Felice Mazzù	Sacked	12 November 2019	9th	Hannes Wolf	18 November 2019
Sint-Truiden	Marc Brys	Sacked	25 November 2019	11th	Nicky Hayen (caretaker)	25 November 2019
Oostende	Kåre Ingebrigtsen	Became manager at APOEL FC	28 December 2019	14th	Dennis van Wijk	31 December 2019
Sint-Truiden	Nicky Hayen (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	2 January 2020	11th	Miloš Kostić	2 January 2020
Mouscron	Bernd Hollerbach	Temporarily replaced due to illness	5 February 2020	11th	Philippe Saint-Jean (caretaker)	5 February 2020
Waasland-Beveren	Arnauld Mercier	Sacked	23 February 2020	16th	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	23 February 2020
Mouscron	Philippe Saint-Jean (caretaker)	Hollerbach recovered from illness	25 February 2020	10th	Bernd Hollerbach	25 February 2020
Oostende	Dennis van Wijk	Sacked	2 March 2020	15th	Adnan Čustović	3 March 2020

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	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 (W)	29	15	8	6	49	32	+17	53	Qualification for the Europa League group stage
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	29	5	5	19	21	60	−39	20

Source: Belgian First Division A, 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.
(C) Champion; (W) Cup winner

Season statistics

Top scorers As of matches played on 7 March 2020. 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. 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. 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

2019–20 in Belgian football
Domestic leagues
First Division A · First Division B · First Amateur Division · Second Amateur Division · Third Amateur Division
Domestic cups
Belgian Cup (Final) · Super Cup
European competitions
Champions League (Final) · Europa League (Final)
2018-19                                                        2020-21