How do the Belgian Pro League regular season and playoffs work?
Unlike any of the major European leagues, the way a champion is crowned in Belgium works completely differently. The Belgian Pro League is broken down into two parts: the regular season and the championship round/European playoff round. During the 34 matchday regular season, each of the 18 teams play each other twice, once at home and once away. At the end of these 34 matchdays, the last-placed team in the Pro League is automatically relegated down to the 1B Pro League; with the team finishing 17th playing in a two-legged promotion/relegation playoff against the 2nd placed team from the 1B Pro League. The sides that finish in places 9-16 are done with their seasons after the regular season finishes unless one of those sides is participating in the Belgian Cup final.
Though the official champion is not crowned at the end of the regular season, there is still a “regular season” champion. The “regular season” champion is guaranteed a place in Europe for the following season, regardless of how the championship playoffs go for them. This means that Royale Union-Saint Gilloise are certain of obtaining at least a spot in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League for next season. Now, let’s discuss how the playoffs are formatted.
This image above shows how the top 4 in Belgium finished up at the end of the regular season. When the playoffs start all points are halved, rounded up to the nearest whole number. For example, USG finished the regular season with 77 points, if you divide that number by two you would get 38.5, which means they will instead start on 39 points in the playoffs. Following them will be Club Brugge on 36 points, and then both Anderlecht and Royal Antwerp will start the playoffs on 32 points. Each side plays each other twice, once at home and once away. Once those matches are all played, a champion is crowned.
There is also European qualification places to be decided for each side in the championship round as well. The champions of Belgium are automatically placed into the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, with the coefficient for the Belgian league high enough to where they get one automatic spot. Second place is also put into the Champions League, but they have to enter the competition in the third qualifying round. Third place gets entered into the final qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League. The team that finishes fourth is the only side that isn’t guaranteed a spot in Europe for the following season. This is because they have to play a one-off match against whoever wins the European playoffs, which will be discussed next. The winner of this tie gets placed into the second round of qualifying of the Europa Conference League.
