2021–22 Belgian First Division A

Belgian First Division A 2021–22
Season information
Dates	(23 July 2021–22 May 2022)
Winners	Club Brugge
Relegated	Beerschot
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Club Brugge Union SG
Europa League	Gent
Europa Conference League	Anderlecht Royal Antwerp
Season statistics
Matches played	249
Goals scored	733
Average	2.94 per match
Top goalscorer	Deniz Undav (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Gent 6–1 Club Brugge (29 August 2021) Anderlecht 7–2 Mechelen (12 September 2021) Kortrijk 5-0 Zulte Waregem (19 February 2022)
Biggest away win	K Beerschot VA 0–7 RSC Anderlecht (27 December 2021)
Highest scoring	RSC Anderlecht 7–2 KV Mechelen (12 September 2021)
← 2020–21	2022–23 →

The 2021–22 Belgian First Division A (officially known as Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 119th season of the top-tier of football in Belgium.

Team changes

On the final matchday, Royal Excel Mouscron was overtaken by Waasland-Beveren, pushing them into a direct relegation spot and thus causing the Mouscron team to return to the second level after six seasons. Waasland-Beveren would eventually face the same fate as a few weeks later they lost the Relegation play-off against Seraing, ending a span of nearly a decade at the top level.

The team from Seraing is a newcomer at the highest level, although a former team with the same name, R.F.C. Seraing (1904), last played at the top level 25 seasons ago and many supporters see the current Seraing as a continuation of the former. The place of Excel Mouscron was taken by 2020–21 Belgian First Division B champions and former Belgian giants Union SG, who return to the top level after 48 years and already gained 11 Belgian Championship titles, mostly in the 1900s and 1930s.

Format change

Clubs agreed to reduce the number of teams again to 16, as due to the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally no teams were relegated from the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A, causing the league to temporarily expand to 18. Hence, normally, the season will start with an initial round-robin phase in which all teams play each other twice, followed by shortened end of season play-offs in which only the top 8 teams will participate. The title playoffs will be played by the top four teams (instead of six) and the Europa play-offs will be played by the teams finishing fifth through eight (instead of all teams finishing below 6th). As a result, for all teams finishing below 8th, the season will be over upon completion of the round-robin phase, with the team in the last three positions being relegated. The clubs still have to confirm this will be the structure, as some clubs have asked the number of teams to remain at 18.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Matricule	Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
35	Anderlecht !Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Lotto Park	21,500
1	Antwerp !Antwerp	Antwerp	Bosuilstadion	12,975
13	Beerschot	Antwerp	Olympic Stadium	12,771
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
31	Oostende !Oostende	Ostend	Versluys Arena	08,432
18	Leuven !Oud-Heverlee Leuven	Leuven	Den Dreef	10,000
167	Seraing !Seraing	Seraing	Stade du Pairay	8,207
373	Sint-Truiden !Sint-Truiden	Sint-Truiden	Stayen	14,600
16	Standard !Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,023
10	Union SG !Union SG	Saint-Gilles	Stade Joseph Marien	8,000
5381	Zulte !Zulte Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	12,500

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Anderlecht	Vincent Kompany	Joma	DVV Insurance (home) Candriam (away)
Antwerp	Franky Vercauteren	Jako	Ghelamco
Beerschot	Will Still	XIII	Yelo
Cercle Brugge	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Kappa	Napoleon Games
Charleroi	Edward Still	Kappa	Lotto
Club Brugge	Philippe Clement	Macron	Unibet
Eupen	Michael Valkanis	Adidas	Qatar Airways
Genk	John van den Brom	Nike	Beobank
Gent	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Craft	VDK Bank
Kortrijk	Luka Elsner	Jako	AGO Jobs & HR
Mechelen	Wouter Vrancken	Jartazi	Telenet
OH Leuven	Marc Brys	Adidas	King Power
Oostende	Alexander Blessin	Kipsta	Star Casino
Seraing	Jean-Louis Garcia	Kappa	Star Casino
Sint-Truiden	Peter Maes	Macron	DMM.com
Standard Liège	Mbaye Leye	New Balance	VOO
Union SG	Felice Mazzu	Le Coq Sportif	Lotto
Zulte-Waregem	Francky Dury	Patrick	Napoleon Games

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Charleroi	Karim Belhocine	Sacked	End of 2020–21 season	Pre-season	Edward Still	16 May 2021
Eupen	Beñat San José	Left			Stefan Krämer	9 June 2021
Beerschot	Will Still	Replaced			Peter Maes	20 May 2021
Seraing	Emilio Ferrera	Left for coaching position at Gent			Jordi Condom	28 May 2021
Sint-Truiden	Peter Maes	Left for Beerschot			Bernd Hollerbach	5 June 2021
Antwerp	Franky Vercauteren	Replaced by Priske			Brian Priske	29 May 2021
Beerschot	Peter Maes	Sacked	15 September 2021	18th	Marc Noë (caretaker)	15 September 2021
	Marc Noë	Caretaker replaced	21 September 2021	18th	Javier Torrente	21 September 2021
Standard Liège	Mbaye Leye	Sacked	5 October 2021	12th	Luka Elsner	7 October 2021
Kortrijk	Luka Elsner	Signed for Standard Liège	7 October 2021	8th	Karim Belhocine	12 October 2021
Cercle Brugge	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Sacked	28 November 2021	17th	Dominik Thalhammer	28 November 2021
Genk	John van den Brom	Sacked	6 December 2021	8th	Bernd Storck	7 December 2021
Zulte Waregem	Francky Dury	Sacked	17 December 2021	17th	Davy De fauw & Timmy Simons	17 December 2021
Seraing	Jordi Condom	Mutual consent	27 December 2021	17th	Jean-Louis Garcia	3 January 2022
Club Brugge	Philippe Clement	Signed for Monaco	3 January 2022	2nd	Alfred Schreuder	3 January 2022
Oostende	Alexander Blessin	Signed for Genoa	19 January 2022	15th	Markus Pflanz (caretaker)	19 January 2022
Beerschot	Javier Torrente	Sacked	7 February 2022	18th	Greg Vanderidt (caretaker)	7 February 2022
Oostende	Markus Pflanz	Caretaker replaced	11 February 2022	14th	Yves Vanderhaeghe	11 February 2022
Eupen	Stefan Krämer	Sacked	16 February 2022	15th	Michael Valkanis	16 February 2021

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Union SG	34	24	5	5	78	27	+51	77	Qualification for the Europa Conference League and Play-offs I
2	Club Brugge	34	21	9	4	72	37	+35	72	Qualification for Play-offs I
3	Anderlecht	34	18	10	6	72	36	+36	64
4	Royal Antwerp	34	19	6	9	55	38	+17	63
5	Gent	34	18	8	8	56	30	+26	62	Qualification for the Play-offs II
6	Charleroi	34	15	9	10	55	46	+9	54
7	Mechelen	34	15	7	12	57	61	−4	52
8	Genk	34	15	6	13	66	47	+19	51
9	Sint-Truiden	34	15	6	13	42	40	+2	51
10	Cercle Brugge	34	12	9	13	49	46	+3	45
11	OH Leuven	34	10	11	13	47	58	−11	41
12	Oostende	34	10	7	17	34	61	−27	37
13	Kortrijk	34	9	10	15	43	48	−5	37
14	Standard Liège	34	9	9	16	32	51	−19	36
15	Eupen	34	8	8	18	37	61	−24	32
16	Zulte Waregem	34	8	8	18	42	69	−27	32
17	Seraing  (O)	34	8	4	22	30	68	−38	28	Qualification for Relegation play-off
18	Beerschot  (R)	34	4	4	26	33	76	−43	16	Relegation to First Division B

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Results

Home \ Away	USG	CLU	AND	ANT	GNT	CHA	KVM	GNK	STR	CER	OHL	OOS	KVK	STA	EUP	ZWA	SER	BEE
Union SG	—	0–1	1–0	1–2	0–0	4–0	2–0	2–1	0–1	3–2	1–3	1–1	2–0	4–0	0–0	2–1	4–2	5–0
Club Brugge	0–0	—	2–2	4–1	1–2	2–0	2–0	3–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	3–0	2–0	2–2	2–2	3–0	3–2	3–2
Anderlecht	1–3	1–1	—	2–1	1–1	4–0	7–2	2–0	2–0	0–2	2–2	3–0	1–1	1–1	4–1	3–2	3–0	4–2
Antwerp	0–2	1–1	2–0	—	1–0	3–0	1–2	4–2	1–1	1–1	2–2	3–0	0–1	2–3	4–2	1–0	2–1	2–1
Gent	0–2	6–1	1–0	0–1	—	2–3	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	5–0	1–1	2–2	3–1	2–0	2–1	4–0	2–2
Charleroi	0–3	0–1	1–3	1–1	0–0	—	0–2	2–0	0–0	5–0	0–3	1–0	1–1	0–0	3–0	3–0	2–0	5–2
Mechelen	3–1	2–1	0–1	3–2	4–3	2–2	—	1–1	0–1	2–2	2–0	3–0	3–2	3–1	1–3	2–2	2–0	3–2
Genk	1–1	2–3	1–0	1–1	0–3	4–2	4–1	—	0–1	1–1	4–0	3–4	2–0	2–0	5–0	2–0	3–0	4–1
Sint-Truiden	1–2	1–2	2–2	2–1	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–2	—	1–2	2–0	1–1	0–2	3–0	2–0	1–3	3–1	3–2
Cercle Brugge	0–3	2–0	1–2	0–1	2–2	1–2	3–1	2–2	0–1	—	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–1	1–2	3–1	2–0	2–0
OH Leuven	1–4	1–4	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–1	5–0	2–1	4–1	3–2	—	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–4	1–1	1–3	0–0
Oostende	1–7	1–3	2–2	1–2	1–0	0–3	2–4	0–4	0–0	2–1	1–3	—	0–2	1–0	2–1	0–2	2–2	3–1
Kortrijk	2–3	0–1	2–3	0–2	1–0	2–2	2–2	1–2	1–3	0–2	2–1	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	5–0	2–0	1–1
Standard Liège	1–3	2–2	0–1	2–5	0–1	0–3	1–2	1–1	1–2	1–1	2–2	1–0	1–1	—	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0
Eupen	2–3	1–3	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–4	1–1	3–2	2–1	0–2	3–1	0–2	2–2	0–2	—	1–1	1–2	1–0
Zulte Waregem	0–2	0–4	1–2	2–1	1–2	2–2	3–2	2–6	0–2	2–4	1–1	0–0	2–2	1–2	3–0	—	1–0	2–0
Seraing	0–4	0–5	0–5	0–1	0–0	1–3	1–0	0–2	2–0	2–1	1–1	2–3	0–2	0–1	0–0	5–1	—	2–1
Beerschot	0–3	1–3	0–7	0–1	0–2	2–3	0–1	2–0	0–1	0–1	3–1	0–2	2–1	0–1	0–3	3–3	3–0	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Play-offs

Play-Off I

Points obtained during the regular season are halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. Union SG started with 39 points, Club Brugge 36 points, Anderlecht and Antwerp 32 points each. As the points of Union SG and Antwerp were rounded up, in case of ties they will always be ranked below the team (or teams) they are tied with.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		CLU	USG	AND	ANT
1	Club Brugge (C)	6	4	2	0	8	2	+6	50	Qualification for the Champions League group stage		—	1–0	1–1	1–0
2	Union SG	6	2	1	3	5	5	0	46	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round		0–2	—	3–1	0–1
3	Anderlecht	6	2	2	2	8	7	+1	40	Qualification for the Europa Conference League third qualifying round		0–0	0–2	—	2–1
4	Antwerp	6	1	1	4	3	10	−7	36	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round		1–3	0–0	0–4	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Regular season finishing position.
(C) Champion

Play-Off II

Points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. Gent started with 31 points, Charleroi with 27 points, and both Mechelen and Genk with 26 points each. The points of Genk were rounded up, and hence in case of ties they will always be ranked below the team (or teams) they are tied with.

The winner of Play-Off II was originally scheduled to play the fourth-placed team of Play-Off I to determine which team would qualify for the second qualifying round of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League. However, since Gent won both the 2021–22 Belgian Cup (thus already qualifying for the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League) and Play-off II, the fourth-placed team of Play-Off I qualified automatically for the Europa Conference League and the European play-off was not contested.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		GNT	GNK	CHA	MEC
1	Gent	6	4	0	2	9	5	+4	43	Qualification for the Europa League play-off round		—	0–1	1–2	1–0
2	Genk	6	3	2	1	10	8	+2	37			0–2	—	3–2	4–2
3	Charleroi	6	2	1	3	10	12	−2	34			1–3	2–2	—	3–2
4	Mechelen	6	1	1	4	6	10	−4	30			1–2	0–0	1–0	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Regular season finishing position.

Promotion-Relegation play-off

The team finishing in 17th place competes in a two-legged match with the runner-up of the 2021–22 Belgian First Division B, with the aggregate winner to play in the 2022–23 Belgian First Division A, while the losing team will take part in the 2022–23 Belgian First Division B.

On 2 April 2021, following a draw away to Oostende, Seraing was certain of finishing 17th and forced to play the relegation play-off against a team from the Belgian First Division B. Seraing had won promotion last season by winning the 2020–21 Promotion-Relegation play-off and will now be looking to avoid going down again the same way. One day later in the 2021–22 Belgian First Division B, RWDM lost their match away to Deinze, meaning they would finish second and thus play Seraing for promotion.

23 April 2022 (2022-04-23) 18:30 CEST	RWD Molenbeek	0–1	Seraing	Edmond Machtens Stadium, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean Attendance: 10,000 Referee: Bram Van Driessche
		Report	Mikautadze  45'

30 April 2022 (2022-04-30) 20:45 CEST	Seraing	0–0	RWD Molenbeek	Stade du Pairay, Seraing Attendance: 7,200 Referee: Jonathan Lardot
		Report

Seraing won 1–0 on aggregate
Seraing remains in Belgian First Division A. RWD Molenbeek remains in Belgian First Division B.

Season statistics

As of 10 April 2022

Top scorers & assists

Source: Soccerway

Top scorers ranking

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Deniz Undav	Union SG	25
2	Michael Frey	Antwerp	22
3	Paul Onuachu	Genk	19
	Tarik Tissoudali	Gent
5	Jelle Vossen	Zulte Waregem	17
6	Nikola Storm	Mechelen	15
	Joshua Zirkzee	Anderlecht
8	Charles De Ketelaere	Club Brugge	14
9	Hugo Cuypers	Mechelen	13
	Zinho Gano	Zulte Waregem
	Shamar Nicholson	Charleroi
	Dante Vanzeir	Union SG

Assists ranking

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Xavier Mercier	OH Leuven	13
2	Jean-Luc Dompé	Zulte Waregem	11
	Sergio Gómez	Anderlecht
	Noa Lang	Club Brugge
5	Junya Ito	Genk	10
6	Dante Vanzeir	Union SG	9
7	Hugo Cuypers	Mechelen	8
	Deniz Undav	Union SG
9	6 players		7