2008–09 Belgian First Division

Jupiler Pro League
Season	2008–09
Champions	Standard Liège
Relegated	Dender; Tubize; Mons
Champions League	Standard Liège; Anderlecht
Europa League	Club Brugge; Gent; Genk
Matches played	306
Goals scored	855 (2.79 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jaime Alfonso Ruiz (17 goals)
	← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 season of the Belgian First Division (also known as Jupiler Pro League after a sponsor) was the 106th season of top-tier football in Belgium. The regular season began on 16 August 2008 and ended on 16 May 2009. Standard Liège were the defending champions.

On 19 April 2009, Mons were relegated after Dender beat Roeselare 3–1 and made it mathematically impossible for Mons to climb into 16th position or higher. Tubize were relegated on 3 May 2009 after a 1–1 draw at home to Anderlecht.

The 2008–09 champions were decided in a playoff because Standard and Anderlecht finished the regular season equal on points and number of wins. Standard won the playoff by 2–1 on aggregate and thereby retained the title.

Anderlecht

Germinal Beerschot

Club Brugge
Cercle Brugge

Location of teams in Belgian First Division 2008–09

Participating teams

The league consisted of 18 teams, the best 16 teams from last season and two promoted teams from the Second Division.

The number of participants was reduced to 16 teams the season after, hence relegation was increased from two to three or four teams.

Team changes from the previous season

Sint-Truidense and Brussels were relegated to the Second Division at the end of the previous season after finishing in the last two places. They were replaced by Second Division champions Kortrijk and promotion playoff winners Tubize.

Overview

Club	Location	Current manager	Team captain	Stadium	Capacity
Standard Liège	Liège	László Bölöni	Steven Defour	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,000
R.S.C. Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Ariel Jacobs	Olivier Deschacht	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium	28,063
Club Brugge KV	Bruges	Jacky Mathijssen	Philippe Clement	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,415
Cercle Brugge K.S.V.	Bruges	Glen De Boeck	Denis Viane	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,415
K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot	Antwerp	Aimé Anthuenis	Daniel Cruz	Olympisch Stadion	12,148
K.A.A. Gent	Ghent	Michel Preud'homme	Bryan Ruiz	Jules Ottenstadion	12,919
S.V. Zulte Waregem	Waregem	Francky Dury	Ludwin Van Nieuwenhuyze	Regenboogstadion	8,500
R. Charleroi S.C.	Charleroi	John Collins	Frank Defays	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	25,000
K.V.C. Westerlo	Westerlo	Jan Ceulemans	Jef Delen	Het Kuipje	8,200
K.R.C. Genk	Genk	Pierre Denier and Hans Visser (caretakers)	Hans Cornelis	Cristal Arena	24,900
R.E. Mouscron	Mouscron	Enzo Scifo	Gonzague van Dooren	Stade Le Canonnier	11,500
K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	Lokeren	Aleksandar Janković	Olivier Doll	Daknamstadion	10,000
KV Mechelen	Mechelen	Peter Maes	Jonas Ivens	Veolia-Stadion	14,145
K.S.V. Roeselare	Roeselare	Dennis Van Wijk	Stefaan Tanghe	Schiervelde Stadion	9,036
F.C. Verbroedering Dender E.H.	Denderleeuw	Johan Boskamp	Steven de Petter	Florent Beeckmanstadion	6,800
R.A.E.C. Mons	Mons	Christophe Dessy (caretaker)	Roberto Mirri	Stade Charles Tondreau	9,504
K.V. Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Stéphane Demets	Guldensporen Stadion	8,770
A.F.C. Tubize	Tubize	Albert Cartier	Gregory Neels	Stade Leburton	4,000

Managerial changes

During summer break

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Mons	Albert Cartier	Mutual consent	11 May 2008 ^[1]	Philippe Saint-Jean	6 June 2008 ^[2]	Pre-Season
Gent	Trond Sollied	Resigned	18 May 2008 ^[3]^[4]	Michel Preud'homme	27 May 2008 ^[5]	Pre-Season
Standard Liège	Michel Preud'homme	End of contract	26 May 2008 ^[6]	László Bölöni	9 June 2008 ^[7]	Pre-Season
Tubize	Philippe Saint-Jean	Resigned	6 June 2008 ^[2]	Albert Cartier	14 June 2008 ^[8]	Pre-Season

During the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Mons	Philippe Saint-Jean	Resigned	21 August 2008 ^[9]	Thierry Pister (caretaker)	21 August 2008 ^[9]	18th
Roeselare	Dirk Geeraerd	Sacked	26 October 2008 ^[10]	Dennis van Wijk	29 October 2008 ^[11]	18th
Germinal Beerschot	Harm van Veldhoven	Resigned	13 November 2008 ^[12]	Aimé Anthuenis	14 November 2008 ^[13]	16th
Mons	Thierry Pister (caretaker)	Sacked	4 December 2008 ^[14]	Christophe Dessy (caretaker)	4 December 2008 ^[14]	15th
Charleroi	Thierry Siquet	Sacked	15 December 2008 ^[15]	John Collins	15 December 2008 ^[15]	11th
Genk	Ronny Van Geneugden	Resigned	5 March 2009 ^[16]	Pierre Denier and Hans Visser (caretakers)	5 March 2009 ^[16]	4th
Lokeren	Georges Leekens	Resigned	31 March 2009 ^[17]	Aleksandar Janković	6 April 2009 ^[18]	7th

League standings

Final table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Standard Liège (C)	34	24	5	5	66	26	+40	77^[a]	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Anderlecht	34	24	5	5	75	30	+45	77^[a]	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
3	Club Brugge	34	18	5	11	59	50	+9	59	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
4	Gent	34	17	8	9	67	42	+25	59	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round
5	Zulte Waregem	34	16	7	11	55	36	+19	55
6	Westerlo	34	15	7	12	42	38	+4	52
7	Lokeren	34	13	12	9	40	32	+8	51
8	Genk	34	15	5	14	48	51	−3	50	Qualification to Europa League play-off round^[b]
9	Cercle Brugge	34	14	5	15	48	53	−5	47
10	Mechelen	34	12	10	12	46	52	−6	46
11	Mouscron	34	12	8	14	42	49	−7	44
12	Charleroi	34	12	7	15	43	48	−5	43
13	Germinal Beerschot	34	11	9	14	44	42	+2	42
14	Kortrijk	34	9	11	14	37	55	−18	38
15	Dender (R)	34	9	8	17	44	58	−14	35	Qualification to the Relegation play-offs
16	Roeselare (O)	34	8	6	20	33	59	−26	30	Qualification to the Relegation play-offs
17	Tubize (R)	34	7	6	21	35	77	−42	27	Relegation to 2009–10 Belgian Second Division
18	Mons (R)	34	3	10	21	31	57	−26	19	Relegation to 2009–10 Belgian Second Division

Source: soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) number of matches won; if teams are still tied a playoff is organised.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ ^a ^b The championship was decided in a playoff (see below).
^ Genk qualified for the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League by winning the 2008–09 Belgian Cup.

Championship playoff

Since Anderlecht and Standard were tied on both points and wins, a two-legged playoff was played in order to determine the league champions. Standard won the playoff 2–1 on aggregate and were crowned champions.

21 May 2009

20:30 CEST

Anderlecht	1 – 1	Standard
Legear 52'	Report (in Dutch)	Mbokani 60'

Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Anderlecht, Brussels

Referee: Johan Verbist

24 May 2009

20:30 CEST

Standard	1 – 0	Anderlecht
Witsel 40' (pen.)	Report (in Dutch)

Stade Maurice Dufrasne, Liège

Referee: Paul Allaerts

Positions by matchday

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

Matchday 1: Mechelen vs. Club Brugge (played between 4th and 5th matchday)
Matchday 2: Club Brugge vs. Zulte-Waregem (played between 8th and 9th matchday)
Matchday 13: Kortrijk vs. Zulte-Waregem (played between 16th and 17th matchday)
Matchday 19: Gent vs. Anderlecht (played between 22nd and 23rd matchday)

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34
Team ╲ Round
Standard Liège	3	1	4	3	2	1	2	1	2	4	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1
Anderlecht	2	4	2	2	1	2	1	3	3	2	3	4	3	2	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
Club Brugge	12	15	10	10	4	4	3	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	3
Gent	1	3	2	4	7	8	10	8	7	5	6	7	9	7	9	10	10	9	11	8	7	8	9	7	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	4
Zulte Waregem	10	11	7	11	15	11	12	10	9	10	11	11	11	11	10	9	9	11	10	10	8	6	5	5	6	7	8	7	7	5	7	8	5	5
Westerlo	5	8	5	6	6	10	6	6	6	6	4	3	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	6	5	5	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	7	6	5	6	6
Lokeren	10	5	6	8	5	7	9	7	8	8	8	8	6	8	6	6	8	7	7	7	9	9	8	9	8	8	7	8	8	8	8	6	7	7
Genk	8	13	8	5	8	5	5	5	5	3	5	6	4	4	4	4	4	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	6	5	7	8	8
Cercle Brugge	17	18	12	13	10	12	8	11	12	11	9	9	8	9	8	7	5	4	5	5	6	7	7	8	9	11	12	12	11	9	9	11	9	9
Mechelen	12	16	17	17	14	9	11	13	15	15	15	16	16	16	15	13	13	14	14	14	13	13	13	12	11	10	11	10	10	11	11	10	11	10
Mouscron	4	2	1	1	3	3	4	5	4	7	7	5	7	6	7	8	7	8	8	9	10	10	10	11	12	12	9	9	9	10	10	9	10	11
Charleroi	15	7	11	7	11	14	14	12	11	9	10	10	10	10	11	12	12	12	12	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	12
Germinal Beerschot	8	10	15	8	12	15	15	15	16	16	16	17	17	17	16	17	15	13	13	12	12	12	12	10	10	9	10	11	12	12	12	12	12	13
Kortrijk	6	6	9	12	9	6	7	9	10	12	12	13	13	13	12	11	11	10	9	11	11	11	11	13	13	13	14	14	14	15	14	14	15	14
Dender	16	13	16	15	12	16	16	16	15	14	14	12	12	12	14	14	16	17	17	16	16	16	16	15	15	15	15	16	16	14	15	15	14	15
Roeselare	6	12	14	16	17	17	18	18	18	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	17	17	16	16	16	15	15	16	16	16	16	16
Tubize	14	17	18	18	18	18	17	17	17	18	17	15	15	14	17	15	17	15	15	15	15	15	15	16	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17
Mons	18	9	13	14	16	13	13	14	14	13	13	14	14	15	13	16	14	16	16	17	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18

Source: soccerassociation.com

Results

Home \ Away	AND	CER	CHA	BRU	DEN	GNK	GNT	GBA	KVK	LOK	KVM	MON	MOU	ROE	STA	TUB	WES	ZWA
Anderlecht		1–2	2–0	1–0	4–0	2–0	2–2	2–0	4–0	2–3	7–1	3–2	2–1	3–1	4–2	5–1	2–0	2–0
Cercle Brugge	0–3		2–2	1–3	1–2	1–2	3–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	0–1	4–3	4–1	4–1	2–1	2–0
Charleroi	0–1	3–2		2–2	2–0	3–0	2–5	0–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	3–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	3–2	1–2	1–0
Club Brugge	1–1	3–1	2–1		1–1	0–2	1–4	3–0	4–1	2–3	3–0	3–2	4–1	2–1	1–4	3–1	2–0	2–0
Dender	0–2	1–0	1–2	0–2		2–4	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–0	1–2	3–1	1–3	4–0	2–2	2–0
Genk	0–2	3–2	1–0	0–1	4–3		2–2	1–1	0–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	0–0	3–0	1–4	1–2
Gent	1–2	2–1	2–0	3–0	1–1	2–3		1–3	1–1	1–1	1–2	5–0	2–0	4–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–0
Germinal Beerschot	1–3	1–1	1–2	2–0	1–1	4–1	2–2		3–0	0–2	3–1	2–0	3–0	3–0	1–3	2–0	2–1	1–2
Kortrijk	1–3	2–1	1–1	2–3	1–2	3–1	0–2	0–0		2–3	0–0	1–0	2–2	2–1	0–2	2–2	0–0	1–0
Lokeren	0–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–2	1–2	0–1	1–0	2–0		2–2	0–0	3–0	2–1	1–1	4–1	1–1	2–1
Mechelen	2–1	0–1	2–1	1–1	4–1	2–1	3–3	2–1	1–1	3–0		0–0	2–2	1–2	0–0	0–0	1–3	0–2
Mons	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–2	5–2	3–1	1–2	0–0	1–1	0–2	0–1		0–0	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–2	2–2
Mouscron	1–1	0–1	2–1	5–1	0–2	1–2	4–2	3–1	1–0	2–0	3–1	3–2		2–0	0–3	1–1	0–0	0–2
Roeselare	0–3	1–2	3–1	0–1	2–2	1–0	1–3	2–2	2–2	0–1	1–0	3–2	2–0		1–1	1–2	1–0	0–3
Standard Liège	2–1	4–0	1–2	2–0	3–2	2–0	2–1	3–1	2–0	1–0	4–1	2–1	3–1	3–0		4–0	3–0	1–2
Tubize	1–1	3–0	3–1	1–4	2–1	1–3	0–1	1–0	3–3	2–1	1–5	2–1	1–2	0–1	0–1		1–2	0–6
Westerlo	0–1	1–2	1–0	1–1	3–1	1–0	3–2	1–0	1–3	1–0	0–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	4–1		3–2
Zulte Waregem	4–0	3–1	4–2	3–1	1–0	1–3	0–2	2–2	5–1	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–1

Source: soccerway.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

First goal of the season: Dieumerci Mbokani for Standard Liège against Dender (16 August 2008)
Widest winning margin: 6: Anderlecht 7–1 Mechelen (25 October 2008) and Tubize 0–6 Zulte Waregem (21 February 2009)
Most goals in a match: 8: Anderlecht 7–1 Mechelen (25 October 2008)
Hat-tricks scored:
- Idir Ouali for Mouscron against Gent (13 September 2008)
- Nicolás Frutos for Anderlecht against Mechelen (25 October 2008)
- Habib Habibou for Charleroi against Tubize (22 November 2008)
- Jérémy Perbet for Tubize against Kortrijk (29 November 2008)
- Adnan Ćustović for Mouscron against Club Brugge (20 December 2008)
- Chris Makiese for Zulte Waregem against Kortrijk (18 April 2009)