The 2019–20 Belgian First Division A (officially known as Jupiler Pro League) was the 117th season of top-tier football in Belgium.
On 2 April 2020, the Jupiler Pro League's board of directors agreed to propose to cancel the season early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Should this proposal be accepted, Club Brugge will be awarded the title.[2] In the meantime UEFA has threatened to ban teams in Europe in case their respective leagues were terminated early without trying to have all remaining matches completed.[3] The decision of whether to accept this proposal was initially meant to be decided by a vote at a meeting on 15 April 2020, but had been postponed three times.[4]
The proposal was finally accepted by the General Assembly on 15 May 2020, confirming Club Brugge as 2019–20 First Division A champions.[5]
Team changes
As 2018–19 Belgian First Division B champions, Mechelen would have replaced relegated Lokeren. However, as part of the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal, Mechelen were found guilty of match-fixing at the end of the 2017–18 season, resulting in the club being relegated back to the First Division B and runners-up Beerschot taking the spot of Mechelen instead. Mechelen appealed the decision with the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sports, which confirmed that KV Mechelen was indeed guilty of match-fixing, but that according to the rules of the Royal Belgian Football Association, relegation is no longer a possible penalty as the match-fixing occurred more than one season ago. KV Mechelen was thus allowed to play in the Belgian First Division A, but did get banned from participating in the UEFA Europa League and the Belgian Cup for one season.
Format change
While the regular season remains unchanged, the end of season play-offs have been altered somewhat, specifically the Europa League play-offs will now be played by 16 instead of 12 teams. Taking part will be the bottom ten teams together with the six top teams from the Belgian First Division B, to be divided in four groups of four teams. The four group winners will play semi-finals and a final to determine the team which will play the fourth (or fifth) placed team from the championship play-offs for the remaining ticket into the UEFA Europa League. This change allows both the team relegating from the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A and the 2019–20 Belgian First Division B champion to take part in the Europa League play-offs, allowing these teams to bridge the gap of nearly six months without any matches as used to be the case in previous seasons.[6]
^Waasland-Beveren would have been relegated due to finishing last, however following legal proceedings the Belgian Pro League eventually voted in favour of expanding the 2020–21 Belgian First Division A to 18 teams, meaning Waasland-Beveren was spared and both OH Leuven and Beerschot were promoted from the 2019–20 Belgian First Division B.
Source: Belgian Pro League(in Dutch) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. Notes:
^The match between Sint-Truiden and Genk was suspended with the score at 3–3 due to supporter violence. Initially, no points were awarded and the Belgian FA demanded to replay the match entirely behind closed doors and further penalize both clubs with an additional match behind closed doors, a two points penalty and a fine of 5000 Euro.[37] On 4 December 2019, after both clubs had appealed the decision citing an incorrectly followed procedure in which the referee had stopped the match too soon, the final verdict was that the 3–3 result stood as final and both clubs were penalized 5000 Euro and were forced to play their next home match with part of their stand closed.[38]
^Previous managers at Anderlecht during the 2019–20 season include Simon Davies & Vincent Kompany (matchday 1 to 9) and caretaker Jonas De Roeck & Vincent Kompany on matchday 10. Kompany & Vercauteren have been in charge from matchday 11.
^Prior to Storck, Fabien Mercadal was in charge for matchdays 1 through 10.
^Hollerbach started the season at Excel Mouscron but became ill, with his duties taken over since matchday 22 by sports advisor Rudi Vata, without Vata being appointed officially as manager. For matchdays 24 through 27, Philippe Saint-Jean was in charge, having been appointed as caretaker manager. After having recovered, Hollerbach took up his position again from matchday 28.
^Felice Mazzù was in charge for matchdays 1 through 15, although Genk had at that point only played 14 matches as the away match at Antwerp had been postponed.
^Kåre Ingebrigtsen was in charge for matchdays 1 through 21. For matchdays 22 through 28, Dennis van Wijk took over before being replaced by Adnan Čustović
^Marc Brys was in charge for matchdays 1 through 16, while Nicky Hayen held the caretaker position for matchdays 17 through 20.
^Previous managers at Waasland-Beveren during the 2019–20 season include Adnan Čustović (matchday 1 to 5), caretaker Dirk Geeraerd on matchday 6, Arnauld Mercier (matchday 7 to 27) and again Geeraerd from matchday 28.
^The announcement of Mercier coming in was made on 30 August 2019, however Geeraerd remained caretaker for the match of 31 August against Charleroi and Mercier would start the job only on September 2nd.
^The announcement of Vercauteren coming in was made on 3 October 2019, however Jonas De Roeck was appointed caretaker manager for the match of 4 October 2019 against Charleroi and Vercauteren would start the job only on October 7th.
