2017–18 Belgian First Division A

Mechelen
Highest attendance	Regular season ; 27,531; Club Brugge 2–2 Genk; (17 February 2018); Play-offs; 27,531; Club Brugge 1–0 Genk; (2 April 2018)
Lowest attendance	Regular season ; 2,100; Eupen 0–0 Sint-Truiden; (16 December 2017); Play-offs; 1,498; Lierse 0–3 Excel Mouscron; (31 March 2018)
Average attendance	Regular season ; 10,867; Play-offs; 8,789
	← 2016–17 2018–19 → All statistics correct as of 11 March 2018.

The 2017–18 Belgian First Division A was the 115th season of top-tier football in Belgium. The season began on 28 July 2017 and concluded on 20 May 2018. The fixtures were announced in early June 2017. Anderlecht were the defending champions but had to settle for third place with Club Brugge taking their 15th title.

Team changes

Westerlo was relegated after finishing last in the 2016–17 Belgian First Division A.
Antwerp was promoted after winning the promotion play-offs against Roeselare.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Waasland-
Beveren

Zulte Waregem

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Locations of the 2017–18 Belgian First Division A teams

[3]

Matricule	Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
35	Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium	21,500
1	Antwerp	Antwerp	Bosuilstadion	12,975
22	Charleroi	Charleroi	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	14,000
3	Club Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
4276	Eupen	Eupen	Kehrweg Stadion	8,363
322	Genk	Genk	Luminus Arena	24,956
7	Gent	Ghent	Ghelamco Arena	20,000
19	Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Guldensporen Stadion	9,399
282	Lokeren	Lokeren	Daknamstadion	12,000
25	Mechelen	Mechelen	AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne	16,700
216	Excel Mouscron	Mouscron	Stade Le Canonnier	10,571
31	Oostende	Ostend	Versluys Arena	8,432
373	Sint-Truiden	Sint-Truiden	Stayen	14,600
16	Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,023
4068	Waasland-Beveren	Beveren	Freethiel Stadion	8,190
5381	Zulte Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	12,500

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
Anderlecht	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Leander Dendoncker	Adidas	BNP Paribas Fortis
Antwerp	László Bölöni	Faris Haroun	Jako	Star Casino
Charleroi	Felice Mazzu	Francisco Martos	Hungaria	Proximus
Club Brugge	Ivan Leko	Ruud Vormer	Macron	Daikin
Eupen	Claude Makélélé	Luis García	Nike	Aspire Academy
Excel Mouscron	Frank Defays	Dimitri Mohamed	Erima	Star Casino
Genk	Philippe Clement	Thomas Buffel	Nike	Beobank
Gent	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Nana Akwasi Asare	Jartazi	VDK Spaarbank
Kortrijk	Glen De Boeck	Hannes Van der Bruggen	Jako	AGO Jobs & HR
Lokeren	Peter Maes	Killian Overmeire	Jartazi	QTeam
Mechelen	Dennis van Wijk	Seth De Witte	Jartazi	Telenet
Oostende	Adnan Čustović	Nicolas Lombaerts	Joma	Willems Veranda's
Sint-Truiden	Jonas De Roeck	Steven De Petter	Kappa	Golden Palace
Standard Liège	Ricardo Sá Pinto	Sébastien Pocognoli	New Balance	BASE
Waasland-Beveren	Dirk Geeraerd	Rudy Camacho	Kappa	Circus
Zulte-Waregem	Francky Dury	Davy De fauw	Patrick	Record Bank

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Waasland-Beveren	Čedomir Janevski	Mutual consent	End of 2016–17 season	Pre-season	Philippe Clement	24 May 2017 ^[4]
Club Brugge	Michel Preud'homme	Mutual consent	End of 2016–17 season		Ivan Leko	8 June 2017 ^[5]
Kortrijk	Karim Belhocine	Replaced	End of 2016–17 season		Yannis Anastasiou	20 May 2017 ^{[n 1]} ^[6]
Standard Liège	José Jeunechamps (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	End of 2016–17 season		Ricardo Sá Pinto	11 June 2017 ^[7]
Sint-Truiden	Ivan Leko	Signed by Club Brugge	8 June 2017 ^[5]		Tintín Márquez	22 June 2017 ^[8]
Antwerp	Wim De Decker	Demoted to assistant coach	16 June 2017 ^[9]		László Bölöni	16 June 2017 ^[9]
Sint-Truiden	Tintín Márquez	Sacked	7 August 2017 ^[10]	8th	Jonas De Roeck	10 August 2017 ^[11]
Lokeren	Rúnar Kristinsson	Sacked	9 August 2017 ^[12]	15th	Peter Maes	9 August 2017 ^[12]
Anderlecht	René Weiler	Sacked	18 September 2017 ^[13]	9th	Nicolás Frutos (caretaker)	18 September 2017 ^[13]
Oostende	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Sacked	19 September 2017 ^[14]	16th	Adnan Čustović	19 September 2017 ^[14]
Gent	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Mutual consent	27 September 2017 ^[15]	14th	Yves Vanderhaeghe	4 October 2017 ^[16]
Anderlecht	Nicolás Frutos	Caretaker replaced	3 October 2017 ^[17]	7th	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	3 October 2017 ^[17]
Mechelen	Yannick Ferrera	Sacked	23 October 2017 ^[18]	15th	Tom Caluwé (caretaker)	23 October 2017 ^[18]
Mechelen	Tom Caluwé (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	1 November 2017 ^[19]	16th	Aleksandar Janković	1 November 2017 ^[19]
Eupen	Jordi Condom	Sacked	6 November 2017 ^[20]	16th	Claude Makélélé	6 November 2017 ^[20]
Kortrijk	Yannis Anastasiou	Sacked	8 November 2017 ^[21]	15th	Glen De Boeck	8 November 2017 ^[22]
Genk	Albert Stuivenberg	Sacked	10 December 2017 ^[23]	9th	Philippe Clement	19 December 2017 ^[24]
Waasland-Beveren	Philippe Clement	Signed for Genk	19 December 2017 ^[24]	7th	Sven Vermant	5 January 2018 ^[25]
Mechelen	Aleksandar Janković	Sacked	24 January 2018 ^[24]	15th	Dennis van Wijk	24 January 2018 ^[26]
Excel Mouscron	Mircea Rednic	Sacked	14 February 2018 ^[27]	12th	Frank Defays	14 February 2018 ^[28]
Waasland-Beveren	Sven Vermant	Sacked	9 May 2018 ^[29]	Regular season: 12th Europa League POs: 6th	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	9 May 2018 ^[29]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Club Brugge	30	20	7	3	68	33	+35	67	Qualification for the championship play-offs
2	Anderlecht	30	16	7	7	49	42	+7	55
3	Charleroi	30	13	12	5	46	30	+16	51
4	Gent	30	14	8	8	45	27	+18	50
5	Genk	30	11	11	8	44	36	+8	44
6	Standard Liège	30	11	11	8	43	41	+2	44
7	Kortrijk	30	12	6	12	42	39	+3	42	Qualification for the Europa League play-offs
8	Antwerp	30	10	11	9	38	40	−2	41
9	Zulte Waregem	30	11	4	15	47	52	−5	37
10	Sint-Truiden	30	9	10	11	29	41	−12	37
11	Oostende	30	10	6	14	42	41	+1	36
12	Waasland-Beveren	30	9	8	13	50	51	−1	35
13	Lokeren	30	8	7	15	33	49	−16	31
14	Excel Mouscron	30	8	6	16	40	59	−19	30
15	Eupen	30	6	9	15	40	57	−17	27
16	Mechelen (R)	30	6	9	15	31	49	−18	27	Relegation to First Division B

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

2017–18 Belgian First Division A

Team changes

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Regular season

League table

Results

Championship play-offs

League table

Europa League play-offs

Group A

Group B

Semi-final

Final

Number of teams by provinces

Season statistics

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

Top assists

Clean sheets

Notes

References

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Hamdi Harbaoui	Zulte Waregem	22
2	Teddy Chevalier	KV Kortrijk	21
3	Isaac Kiese Thelin	Waasland-Beveren	19
4	Kaveh Rezaei	Sporting Charleroi	16
5	Lukasz Teodorczyk	RSC Anderlecht	15
5	Abdoulay Diaby	Club Brugge	15

Rnd	Player	Club	Goals	Date	Home	Score	Away
11	Isaac Kiese Thelin	Waasland-Beveren	7' 20' 46' 87'	22 October 2017	Zulte Waregem	2 – 5	Waasland-Beveren
12	Brecht Capon	KV Oostende	23' 49' 71'	24 October 2017	KV Oostende	3 – 0	Sporting Charleroi
24	Sofiane Hanni	RSC Anderlecht	14' 41' 44'	28 January 2018	Standard Liège	3 – 3	RSC Anderlecht
26	Teddy Chevalier	KV Kortrijk	38' 69' 83'	10 February 2018	KV Kortrijk	4 – 0	Royal Antwerp
28	Łukasz Teodorczyk	RSC Anderlecht	45+2' (p) 57' 61'	25 February 2018	RSC Anderlecht	5 – 3	Excel Mouscron
30	Yuta Toyokawa	KAS Eupen	73' 80' 89'	11 March 2018	KAS Eupen	4 – 0	Excel Mouscron
33	Hamdi Harbaoui	S.V. Zulte Waregem	23' 61' 78' 85'	14 April 2018	S.V. Zulte Waregem	5 – 1	Excel Mouscron
34	Hamdi Harbaoui	S.V. Zulte Waregem	53' (p) 54' 76'	17 April 2018	Lierse S.K.	1 – 4	S.V. Zulte Waregem

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Ruud Vormer	Club Brugge KV	16
2	Ryota Morioka	RSC Anderlecht	13
3	Hans Vanaken	Club Brugge KV	11
4	Idir Ouali	KV Kortrijk	8
4	Răzvan Marin	Standard Liège	8

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Sinan Bolat	Royal Antwerp FC	14
2	Lovre Kalinić	KAA Gent	13
3	Danny Vukovic	KRC Genk	10
4	Matz Sels	RSC Anderlecht	9
	Nicolas Penneteau	Sporting Charleroi	9