The end of season arrangements for the Jupiler Pro League in Belgium are difficult to understand, even for club officials and the media covering the competition.
In an attempt to maintain the interest of fans, the league essentially finishes after 30 matches. At that point, the top 6 teams enter a mini league, taking half of their rounded up points totals with them.
A round robin of matches, in which the teams play each other home and away, ends with the top team going straight into the group stages of the Champions League. As a result of good recent performances in Europe’s premier competition, Belgium are ranked 8th according to Uefa’s coefficient, meaning the second placed team in Belgium progress into the qualifying rounds of the Champions League.
From here it gets even more confusing. The winner of the Belgian cup competition (if they don’t finish 1st or 2nd) get a place in the Europa League. The third or fourth placed team (if the cup winners were higher) qualify for the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League. (Are you still following?)
The winner of the play-off 2 winners and the 4th placed team (or the 5th placed team if the cup winners were 4th) qualifies for the 2nd round of the Europa League.
This suggests that the jeopardy for the teams finishing either 5th or 6th in the play-offs is huge.
Down at the bottom things are little more straight forward – but not by much!
From 2023 onwards the relegation play-off is for teams ranked 13th to 16th. After the relegation play offs, the bottom two teams are automatically relegated. The 14th placed team will play the third placed team in the Challenger pro league for the chance to retain their place in the league.
To put today’s match in context, KV Kortrijk play 3 of the top 5 teams in their remaining 5 fixtures. KVK may still have opportunities to pick up points with matches against RWDM and KV Mechelen in addition to anything that they can get from the tougher games. They must feel that their recent form should carry them into the play-offs with some hope.
The appointment of Icelandic manager, Freyr Alexanderson in January 2024 has inspired an upturn in results with KVK picking up 8 points out of a possible 15. Today’s test, however, was perhaps his team’s toughest of all.
Royale Union SG come into today’s match on the back of a 2-2 draw against German Bundesliga team Frankfurt in the Europa League. In the Pro League, they are 8 points clear at the top. Extending their lead at the top will no doubt be a priority but will they have one eye on the return leg with Frankfurt next Thursday?