2009–10 Belgian Pro League

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107th season of top-tier football in Belgium

Football league season

K. Sint-Truidense V.V. (7 games) ended 21 November 2009^[8]

← 2008–09 2010–11 →

The 2009–10 season of the Belgian Pro League (also known as Jupiler Pro League for sponsorship reasons) was the 107th season of top-tier football in Belgium. The season began on 31 July 2009 with the first matches of the regular season, and ended in May 2010 with the last matches of the playoff round. Standard Liège were the defending champions.

The competition underwent a significant overhaul for this season by reducing the number of teams and, for the first time in the history of the league, introducing a playoff system to determine the Belgian champions.

On April 18, 2010,

Club Brugge

.

Changes from 2008–09

Structural changes

The league size has been reduced from eighteen to sixteen teams. Further, the competition has been split into two stages, a conventional season and playoffs.

The participating clubs will first play a conventional round-robin schedule for a total of 30 matches. After the conclusion of those matches, the team ranked 16th will be directly relegated to the Belgian Second Division, while every other team will play in a playoff round according to its league table position.

The first six teams will play in the Championship playoff. Points earned during the regular season are halved with an odd number of points being rounded up. The round will be played on a round-robin schedule. The winner of this round has won the Belgian championship and will participate in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League. The runners-up will also play in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, while the third-placed team will enter the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. Finally, the fourth-placed team will have to compete in a single match (called Testmatch) against the winner of the Europa League playoff (see below) for one spot in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

The teams finishing seventh through fourteenth will play in the Europa League playoff and start with zero points. The round will be played in two groups, with teams in positions 7, 9, 12 and 14 comprising Group A, and the remaining teams comprising Group B. Each group will be played on a round-robin schedule. The winners of these groups will then compete in a two-legged series to earn the right to play against the fourth-placed team of the Championship playoff for one spot in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

The 15th-placed team will participate in the

2010–11 Belgian First Division

.

Team changes

• Tubize
  were relegated.
• Sint-Truiden
  was promoted.
• playoffs
  and was thus allowed to remain in the league. Dender was relegated while Lierse and Antwerp remained in the second division.

Team information

Stadia and locations

Zulte-Waregem

Westerlo

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Location of teams in Belgian First Division 2009-10

Club	Location	Venue	Capacity[citation needed]
R.S.C. Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium	28,063
Cercle Brugge K.S.V.	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,415
R. Charleroi S.C.	Charleroi	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	24,891
Club Brugge K.V.	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,415
K.R.C. Genk	Genk	Cristal Arena	24,900
K.A.A. Gent	Ghent	Jules Ottenstadion	12,919
K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot	Antwerp	Olympisch Stadion	12,771
K.V. Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Guldensporen Stadion	9,500
K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	Lokeren	Daknamstadion	10,000
KV Mechelen	Mechelen	Veolia Stadium Achter de Kazerne	13,123
R.E. Mouscron	Mouscron	Stade Le Canonnier	11,300
Roeselare	Roeselare	Schiervelde Stadion	9,036
K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	Sint-Truiden	Staaienveld	11,250
Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,000
K.V.C. Westerlo	Westerlo	Het Kuipje	8,200
S.V. Zulte-Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	8,500

Personnel and sponsoring

Club	Chairman	Current manager	Team captain	Shirt sponsor
R.S.C. Anderlecht	Roger Vanden Stock	Ariel Jacobs	Olivier Deschacht	BNP Paribas Fortis
Cercle Brugge K.S.V.	Frans Schotte	Glen De Boeck	Denis Viane	A D M B
R. Charleroi S.C.	Abbas Bayat	Position Vacant	Adlène Guedioura	VOO
Club Brugge K.V.	Pol Jonckheere	Adrie Koster	Stijn Stijnen	Dexia
K.R.C. Genk	Harry Lemmens	Franky Vercauteren	João Carlos	Euphony
K.A.A. Gent	Ivan De Witte	Michel Preud'homme	Bernd Thijs	VDK
K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot	Jos Verhaegen	Jos Daerden	Kurt Van Dooren	Quick
K.V. Kortrijk	Jozef Allijns	Georges Leekens	Brecht Verbrugghe	Digipass by VASCO
K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	Roger Lambrecht	Emilio Ferrera	Olivier Doll	Edialux
KV Mechelen	Johan Timmermans	Peter Maes	Jonas Ivens	Telenet
R.E. Mouscron	Philippe Dufermont	Position Vacant	Walter Baseggio	Frinver Promotions
K.S.V. Roeselare	Luc Espeel	Dennis Van Wijk	Stefaan Tanghe	Deceuninck
K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	Roland Duchâtelet	Guido Brepoels	Peter Delorge	Belisol
Standard Liège	Reto Stiffler	Dominique D'Onofrio	Steven Defour	BASE
K.V.C. Westerlo	Herman Wijnants	Jan Ceulemans	Jef Delen	Willy Naessens
S.V. Zulte-Waregem	Willy Naessens	Francky Dury	Ludwin Van Nieuwenhuyze	Enfinity, Petrus

Managerial changes

During summer break

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Genk	Pierre Denier Hans Visser (caretakers)	Caretakers replaced	5 March 2009 [9]	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	17 May 2009 [9]	Pre-Season
Club Brugge	Jacky Mathijssen	Mutual consent	17 May 2009 [10]	Adrie Koster	17 May 2009 [11]	Pre-Season
Kortrijk	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Signed at Genk on 30 March 2009.	17 May 2009 [9]	Georges Leekens	28 May 2009 [12]	Pre-Season
Charleroi	John Collins	End of contract	17 May 2009 [13]	Stéphane Demol	2 June 2009 [14]	Pre-Season
Mouscron	Enzo Scifo	Resigned	6 June 2009 [15]	Miroslav Đukić	10 June 2009 [16]	Pre-Season

During the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Germinal Beerschot	Aimé Anthuenis	Sacked	31 August 2009 [17]	Jos Daerden	3 September 2009 [18]	14th
Lokeren	Aleksandar Janković	Sacked	25 October 2009 [19]	Jacky Mathijssen	25 October 2009 [19]	14th
Mouscron	Miroslav Đukić	Resigned	30 October 2009 [20]	Hans Galjé	2 November 2009 [21]	15th
Charleroi	Stéphane Demol	Resigned	31 October 2009 [22]	Tommy Craig	20 November 2009 [23]	13th
Genk	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Sacked	29 November 2009 [24]	Franky Vercauteren	6 December 2009 [25]	12th
Mouscron	Hans Galjé	Contract annulled by bankruptcy	28 December 2009 [26]			10th
Lokeren	Jacky Mathijssen	Mutual consent	25 January 2010 [27]	Emilio Ferrera	28 January 2010 [28]	15th
Standard Liège	László Bölöni	Resigned	10 February 2010 [29]	Dominique D'Onofrio	10 February 2010 [30]	6th
Charleroi	Tommy Craig	Sacked	14 April 2010 [31]	Jacky Mathijssen	4 June 2010 [32]	13th (4th in Playoff)

Regular season

Financial troubles of Mouscron

During the season, Mouscron got into financial trouble. This caused months of debate and several law procedures, with the fate of Mouscron changing from week to week. The board of Mouscron finally accepted the bankruptcy of Mouscron on 28 December 2009.^[26] At that point, the last two matches of Mouscron had already been forfeited as many players refused to play due to wages from November and December not being paid;^[33][34] three forfeits in a row would have also caused immediate elimination and relegation to the Belgian Third Division.

As a result of the bankruptcy and relegation, Mouscron's record was expunged.^[26]

League table

Positions by round

Note: The classification was made after the weekend (or midweek) of each matchday, so postponed matches were only processed at the time they were played to represent the real evolution in standings. The postponed matches are:

• Matchday 19: Mechelen vs. Germinal Beerschot of 18 December,^[35] Charleroi vs. Standard and Anderlecht vs. Club Brugge of 20 December.^[36] The matches will be played in the beginning of February, between the 24th and 25th matchday.^[37]
• Matchday 22: Club Brugge vs. Westerlo of 16 January^[38] which was played during the 24th matchday on 30 January.^[39]
• Matchday 23: Cercle Brugge vs. Charleroi of 23 January (as a result of the first leg of the quarter final of the Belgian Cup between Anderlecht and Cercle Brugge being played on this date^[40]). The new date for this match is 24 February, between matchdays 27 and 28.
• Matchday 24: Sint-Truiden vs. Westerlo of 30 January (as a result of the postponement of the match Club Brugge vs. Westerlo to this date) is postponed to 3 February,^[39] which is between matchdays 24 and 25. Because of snowfall, both Roeselare vs. Genk and Charleroi vs. Lokeren were postponed.^[41] The match Charleroi vs. Lokeren was originally scheduled to be played on February 10 between matchdays 25 and 26, but was postponed again because of more snow ^[42] and will now be played on March 10 between matchdays 28 and 29.^[43] Roeselare vs. Genk was rescheduled to 24 February, between matchdays 27 and 28.
• Matchday 26: Yet again snow caused several matches to be postponed, in this case Mechelen-Genk, Cercle Brugge-Lokeren, Charleroi-Anderlecht and Germinal Beerschot-Zulte-Waregem.^[44] All matches were rescheduled to be played during the weekend of the 29th matchday, on March 6 and 7.^[43]
• Matchday 29: Due to the rescheduling of several matches to the first weekend of March,^[43] when this matchday was to be played, the whole matchday was postponed one week. With both Anderlecht and Standard Liège still playing in the UEFA Europa League on Thursdays, all matches will be played on Sunday 14 March at 20:00.^[45]
• Matchday 30: With matchday 29 moved to 14 March, matchday 30 was also rescheduled, to Sunday 21 March.^[45]

On top of that, the results of Mouscron were annulled between matchdays 20 and 21, causing many shifts between those matchdays.^[26] Also, for the rest of the season, there will be no point at which all teams have played the same number of matches, until at the end.