2018–19 Belgian First Division B

The 2018–19 season of the Belgian First Division B began in August 2018 and ended in April 2019. It was the third season of the First Division B following a change in league format from the old Belgian Second Division.

Belgian First Division B

Season	2018–19
Champions	Mechelen
Promoted	Mechelen
Relegated	Tubize
Top goalscorer	Leonardo Rocha (16 goals)
Biggest home win	9 matches (6x 3–0, 2x 4–1 & 1x 5–2)
Biggest away win	Mechelen vs Union SG, 0–5
Highest scoring	Beerschot-Wilrijk vs Tubize, 5–2
← 2017–18 2019–20 →

The season was impacted by the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal which most notably involved Mechelen, as it was unclear upon completion of the season whether and how any involved clubs would be sanctioned and what the effect would be on the number of promotion and relegation places. As a result, Mechelen won the title and celebrated promotion on 16 March 2019, following a win over Beerschot Wilrijk in the promotion-playoffs, although the verdict on the investigation was still pending.^[1] End of May, Mechelen was found guilty and not allowed to be promoted, with runners-up Beerschot Wilrijk taking their spot instead. Mechelen appealed the decision at the Belgian Court for Sportsarbitration, which confirmed the verdict of guilt in July, but also ruled that according to the rules of the Belgian Football FA Mechelen could not be penalized with relegation back to the Belgian First Division A as the violation occurred during a previous season, hence Mechelen was allowed to keep its promotion.

Team changes

In

• Mechelen were relegated from the 2017–18 Belgian First Division A after finishing in last place and return to the second level of Belgian football for the first time since the 2006–07 season.
• Lommel were promoted as 2017–18 Belgian First Amateur Division winners, immediately returning after being relegated from the 2016–17 Belgian First Division B.

Out

• Cercle Brugge won the promotion play-offs against Beerschot-Wilrijk and was thus promoted after three seasons at the second level.
• Lierse went bankrupt and dissolved as a team. Tubize had finished in last place in the relegation playoffs but were saved from relegation as a result of the bankruptcy of Lierse.

Team information

Stadiums and locations

Beerschot Wilrijk

Lommel

Westerlo

Mechelen

Roeselare

Tubize

Union SG

OH Leuven

Locations of the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B teams

Matricule	Club	City	First season of current spell at second level	Coming from	2017-18 result	Stadium	Capacity
155	FCO Beerschot Wilrijk	Antwerp	2017–18	Belgian First Amateur Division	3rd (D1B)	Olympic Stadium	12,771
2554	Lommel SK	Lommel	2018–19	Belgian First Amateur Division	1st (D1Am)	Soevereinstadion	8,000
25	Mechelen	Mechelen	2018–19	Belgian First Division A	16th (D1A)	AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne	16,672
18	Oud-Heverlee Leuven	Leuven	2016–17	Belgian Pro League	2nd (D1B)	Den Dreef	10,000
134	K.S.V. Roeselare	Roeselare	2010–11	Belgian Pro League	5th (D1B)	Schiervelde Stadion	9,075
5632	A.F.C. Tubize	Tubize	2009–10	Belgian Pro League	8th (D1B)	Stade Leburton	9,000
10	R. Union Saint-Gilloise	Saint-Gilles, Brussels	2015–16	Belgian Third Division	6th (D1B)	Stade Joseph Marien	5,500
2024	K.V.C. Westerlo	Westerlo	2017–18	Belgian First Division A	7th (D1B)	Het Kuipje	8,035

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Beerschot Wilrijk	Stijn Vreven	Tom Pietermaat	Joma	DCA
Lommel	Tom Van Imschoot	Wouter Scheelen	Legea	United Telecom
Mechelen	Wouter Vrancken	Seth De Witte	Kappa	Telenet and AFAS
OH Leuven	Vincent Euvrard	Dimitri Daeseleire	Vermarc	King Power
Roeselare	Juanito	Raphaël Lecomte	Joma	Euro Shop
Tubize	Philippe Thys	Quentin Laurent	Kappa	No shirt sponsor
Union SG	Luka Elsner	Charles Morren	Patrick	Culture et Formation
Westerlo	Bob Peeters	Nicolas Rommens	Saller	Soudal

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Union SG	Marc Grosjean	Mutual consent	8 May 2018[2]	Pre-season	Luka Elsner	23 May 2018[3]
Beerschot Wilrijk	Marc Brys	Signed by Sint-Truiden	21 May 2018[4]		Stijn Vreven	25 May 2018[5]
Mechelen	Dennis van Wijk	Sacked	20 August 2018[6]	7th	Wouter Vrancken	21 August 2018[7]
Roeselare	Jordi Condom		10 November 2018[8]	7th	Nano	12 November 2018[9]
Roeselare	Nano	Release fee paid by Shanghai Greenland Shenhua	8 January 2019 [10]	Closing tournament: 4th Overall: 6th	Juanito	11 January 2019 [11]
OH Leuven	Nigel Pearson	Sacked	3 February 2019 [12]	Closing tournament: 7th Overall: 8th	Vincent Euvrard	8 February 2019 [13]

League table

Opening tournament

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MEC	USG	B-W	LOM	WES	OHL	ROE	TUB
1	Mechelen	14	9	3	2	29	9	+20	30	Qualification to Promotion play-offs		—	2–1	3–0	1–2	2–0	3–0	3–0	1–0
2	Union SG	14	7	3	4	23	14	+9	24			2–2	—	2–0[a]	1–1	2–0	1–2	2–0	3–2
3	Beerschot Wilrijk	14	7	3	4	19	19	0	24			1–0	1–0	—	1–3	1–1	3–1	2–1	1–0
4	Lommel	14	6	4	4	21	20	+1	22			0–3	1–0	1–2	—	0–1	1–1	3–1	2–2
5	Westerlo	14	6	1	7	16	20	−4	19			0–3	1–3	1–2	4–1	—	0–1	2–1	2–1
6	OH Leuven	14	4	3	7	19	24	−5	15			1–1	1–3	1–1	1–2[a][b]	1–3	—	0–2	4–1
7	Roeselare	14	3	4	7	14	24	−10	13			2–2	1–1	2–1	2–2	0–1[a]	0–4	—	2–1
8	Tubize	14	2	3	9	15	26	−11	9			0–3[a]	0–2	3–3	0–2	2–0	3–1	0–0	—

Source: Belgian First Division B (in French and Dutch)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Away matches won; 7) Play-off.^[16]

Closing tournament

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		B-W	MEC	USG	ROE	WES	OHL	TUB	LOM
1	Beerschot Wilrijk	14	8	6	0	29	14	+15	30	Qualification to Promotion play-offs		—	0–0	3–1	1–1	1–1	3–2	5–2	3–0
2	Mechelen	14	8	5	1	26	16	+10	29			1–1	—	0–5	2–2	3–0	2–1	3–1	3–2
3	Union SG	14	6	3	5	18	15	+3	21			1–1	1–2	—	1–2	0–0	2–1	1–0	1–0[c]
4	Roeselare	14	5	5	4	19	17	+2	20			1–2	0–0	1–1	—	1–1	3–1	0–1	4–2
5	Westerlo	14	3	6	5	12	17	−5	15			1–2	1–3	2–0	2–0	—	0–0	1–0	2–2
6	OH Leuven	14	4	2	8	21	24	−3	14			2–2	1–3	1–2	0–1	3–0	—	0–2	3–1
7	Tubize	14	4	2	8	13	22	−9	14			1–3	0–3	2–0	3–2	0–0	1–3	—	0–0
8	Lommel	14	2	3	9	15	29	−14	9			0–2	1–1	0–2	0–1	2–1	2–3	1–0	—

Source: Belgian First Division B (in French and Dutch)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Away matches won; 7) Play-off.^[16]

1. The matches of the tenth matchday in the weekend of 13–14 October 2018 were postponed by nearly two weeks to 30–31 October following an ongoing investigation into match-fixing during the 2017-18 season, most notably involving Mechelen.^[15]
2. The match between OH Leuven and Lommel was postponed again, following the death of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha as part of the 2018 Leicester helicopter crash.^[14]
3. Match postponed from 2 February 2019 to 6 February due to excessive snow.^[17]

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mechelen	28	17	8	3	55	25	+30	59	Qualification to Promotion play-offs[a]
2	Beerschot Wilrijk	28	15	9	4	48	33	+15	54
3	Union SG	28	13	6	9	41	29	+12	45	Qualification to Europa League play-offs
4	Westerlo	28	9	7	12	28	37	−9	34
5	Roeselare	28	8	9	11	33	41	−8	33	Qualification to Relegation play-offs[b]
6	Lommel	28	8	7	13	34	46	−12	31
7	OH Leuven	28	8	5	15	40	48	−8	29
8	Tubize	28	6	5	17	28	48	−20	23

Source: Belgian First Division B (in French and Dutch)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Away matches won; 7) Play-off.^[18]

Notes

1. The team that promotes to the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A, either by winning the promotion playoff or by winning both the opening and the closing tournament, will not take part in the Europa League play-offs. The next team in the league will take its spot instead.
2. In case the team that wins the promotion playoff finishes in the bottom four, the 4th placed team will play the relegation playoff instead.

Promotion play-offs

The winners of the opening tournament and the closing tournament will meet in a two-legged match to determine the division champion, who will promote to the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A. The team finishing highest in the aggregate table will be allowed to play the second leg at home. In case a single team wins both the opening and the closing tournament, that team will be promoted automatically and no play-offs will be organized.

On 9 November 2018, Mechelen won the opening tournament and was therefore assured of playing at least the promotion play-offs. On the final day of the closing tournament, Mechelen only managed a draw away to Lommel, allowing Beerschot Wilrijk to win the closing period. If Mechelen had won they would have assured direct promotion, instead they had to face Beerschot-Wilrijk in the promotion play-offs.

The first leg saw both teams having chances, with goalkeeper Michael Verrips making big saves in the first half to deny attempts by Erwin Hoffer and Gertjan De Mets, while in the second half Mechelen failed to take advantage of a red card for Jan Van den Bergh. In the second leg, Beerschot-Wilrijk again saw a player sent off following a vicious tackle by Marius Noubissi already after 32 minutes. Nikola Storm opened the score for Mechelen just after the start of the second half, but ten-men Beerschot-Wilrijk managed the equalizer through penalty kick and looked on its way to promote via the away goals rule, when substitute Clément Tainmont scored a volley just two minutes from time to win the match and send Mechelen back to the highest division after just one season in the Belgian First Division B. With that, Beerschot Wilrijk lost the promotion play-offs for the second consecutive year. Several weeks later, Mechelen was found guilty of match-fixing and not allowed to promote as a result, with Beerschot-Wilrijk taking their spot. Mechelen appealed the decision successfully, as per the rules of the Belgian FA they could no longer be punished for events of more than one year in the past.

Beerschot Wilrijk	0–0	Mechelen
Prychynenko  49' Van den Bergh  54'  60'	Report	Van Damme  31' Cornet  81' Engvall  90+2' Lemoine  90+3'

9 March 2019 (2019-03-09)

20:30

Olympic Stadium, Antwerp

Attendance: 10,700

Referee: Erik Lambrechts

---

Mechelen	2–1	Beerschot Wilrijk
Storm 46' Tainmont 88' Engvall  90+3'	Report	Noubissi  32' De Jonghe  45' Vanzeir 64' (pen.) Vanzeir  64' Grisez  90+3' Prychynenko  90+4'

16 March 2019 (2019-03-16)

16:00

Achter de Kazerne, Mechelen

Attendance: 16,298

Referee: Lawrence Visser

Mechelen won 2–1 on aggregate.

Relegation play-offs

The four bottom teams in the aggregate table took part in the relegation play-offs in which they kept half of the points they collected during the overall regular season (rounded up). As a result, the teams started with the following points before the playoff: Roeselare 17 points, Lommel 16, OH Leuven 15, and Tubize 12. As the points of all teams were rounded up, the half-point deduction was irrelevant in the case of ties. Tubize started the play-offs strongest, with 2 draws and a win, resulting in no team being safe after three matchdays. On matchday 4, Lommel became the first team to be certain of avoiding relegation following a 3–0 home win over Tubize. Standings after that matchday were Lommel at 23, OH Leuven at 22, Roeselare at 19, and Tubize at 17 (with Lommel ahead of Tubize in case of ties due to finishing higher in the regular season aggregate table). On matchday 5, Tubize was relegated as they first lost at home to OH Leuven 0–3, after which they needed Roeselare to drop points at Lommel two days later. A 0–1 away win of Roeselare meant Tubize was relegated to the Belgian First Amateur Division and the final matchday was irrelevant, only for Roeselare to overtake Lommel in the final standings.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		OHL	ROE	LOM	TUB
1	OH Leuven	6	4	1	1	11	3	+8	28			—	3–0	1–0	0–1
2	Roeselare	6	2	2	2	8	7	+1	25			2–2	—	0–1	4–0
3	Lommel	6	2	1	3	5	5	0	23			0–2	0–1	—	3–0
4	Tubize (R)	6	1	2	3	3	12	−9	17	Relegation to the 2019–20 Belgian First Amateur Division		0–3	1–1	1–1	—

Source: Belgian First Division B (in French and Dutch)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Position obtained in the 2018–19 Aggregate table 4) Matches won; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Away goals scored; 8) Away matches won; 9) Play-off^[19]
(R) Relegated

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of completion of the regular season.^[20]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Leonardo Rocha	Lommel	16
2	Igor de Camargo	Mechelen	13
	Thomas Henry	OH Leuven[nb 1]
	Youssouf Niakaté	Union SG
	Dante Vanzeir	Beerschot Wilrijk
6	Marius Noubissi	Beerschot Wilrijk	12
7	Faïz Selemani	Union SG	9
8	Gustav Engvall	Mechelen	8
9	Jens Naessens	Westerlo	7
10	Kurt Abrahams	Westerlo	6
	Frédéric Duplus	OH Leuven
	Roman Ferber	Union SG
	Mathieu Maertens	OH Leuven
	Percy Tau	Union SG
	Tarik Tissoudali	Beerschot Wilrijk

5 goals (6 players)

• Jan Van den Bergh (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Rob Schoofs (Mechelen)
• Nikola Storm (Mechelen)
• Joachim Van Damme (Mechelen)
• Elliott Moore (OH Leuven)
• Saviour Godwin (Roeselare)

4 goals (3 players)

• Laurens Vermijl (Lommel)
• Thibaut Van Acker (Roeselare)
• Lukas Van Eenoo (Westerlo)

3 goals (16 players)

• Erwin Hoffer (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Sebastiaan Brebels (Lommel)
• Glenn Claes (Lommel)
• Clément Tainmont (Mechelen)
• William Togui (Mechelen)
• Joeri Dequevy (OH Leuven)
• Bartosz Kapustka (OH Leuven)
• Derrick Tshimanga (OH Leuven)
• Mohammed Aoulad (Roeselare)
• Andrei Camargo (Roeselare)
• Esteban Casagolda (Roeselare)^{[nb 2]}
• Nicolas Rajsel (Roeselare)
• Ernest Agyiri (Tubize)
• Pedro Henrique (Tubize)
• Anthony Schuster (Tubize)
• Thibault Peyre (Union SG)

2 goals (17 players)

• Denis Prychynenko (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Jorn Vancamp (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Tom Van Hyfte (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Glenn Neven (Lommel)
• Sam Valcke (Lommel)
• Mathieu Cornet (Mechelen)
• Arjan Swinkels (Mechelen)
• George Hirst (OH Leuven)
• Samy Kehli (OH Leuven)
• Kjetil Borry (Roeselare)
• Baptiste Schmisser (Roeselare)
• Arsenio Valpoort (Roeselare)
• Hugo Vidémont (Tubize)
• Pietro Perdichizzi (Union SG)
• Ambroise Gboho (Westerlo)
• Nader Ghandri (Westerlo)
• Sava Petrov (Westerlo)

1 goal (32 players)

• Pierre Bourdin (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Alexander Maes (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Euloge Placca Fessou (Beerschot Wilrijk)
• Robin Henkens (Lommel)
• Daan Heymans (Lommel)
• Seth De Witte (Mechelen)
• Onur Kaya (Mechelen)
• Germán Mera (Mechelen)
• Yannick Aguemon (OH Leuven)
• Julien Gorius (OH Leuven)
• Redouane Kerrouche (OH Leuven)
• Jarno Libert (OH Leuven)
• Olivier Myny (OH Leuven)
• Koen Persoons (OH Leuven)
• Kenneth Schuermans (OH Leuven)
• Stijn De Smet (Roeselare)
• Guy Dufour (Roeselare)
• Kingsley Madu (Roeselare)
• Emile Samyn (Roeselare)
• Gino van Kessel (Roeselare)
• Dejan Čabraja (Tubize)
• Shean Garlito (Tubize)
• Lemouya Goudiaby (Tubize)
• Aaron Nemane (Tubize)
• Marco Weymans (Tubize)
• Mathias Fixelles (Union SG)
• Serge Tabekou (Union SG)
• Fabien Antunes (Westerlo)
• Maxime Biset (Westerlo)
• Stephen Buyl (Westerlo)
• Nicolas Rommens (Westerlo)
• Noël Soumah (Westerlo)

1 own goal (8 players)

• Maxime Biset (Westerlo, scored for Mechelen)
• Gaëtan Coucke (Lommel, scored for Mechelen)
• Joren Dom (Beerschot Wilrijk, scored for Roeselare)
• Salomon Nirisarike (Tubize, scored for Mechelen)
• Pietro Perdichizzi (Union SG, scored for Tubize)
• Baptiste Schmisser (Roeselare, scored for Mechelen)
• Noël Soumah (Westerlo, scored for Mechelen)
• Jorn Vancamp (Beerschot Wilrijk, scored for Lommel)

Team of the season

Upon completion of the regular season a team of the season award was compiled, based upon the results of the team of the week results throughout the season, constructed based on nominations from managers, assistant-managers, journalists and analysts. The results were announced from 22 March 2019, with one player revealed each day.

Position Player Club Reference GK Théo Defourny Tubize [21] RB Federico Vega Union SG [22] CB Thibault Peyre Union SG & Mechelen [23] CB Jan Van den Bergh Beerschot Wilrijk [24] LB Derrick Tshimanga OH Leuven [25] MF Onur Kaya Mechelen [26] MF Lukas Van Eenoo Westerlo [27] MF Robin Henkens Lommel [28] LW Nikola Storm Mechelen [29] RW Percy Tau Union SG [30] FW Igor de Camargo Mechelen [31]

Defourny Vega Peyre Van den Bergh Tshimanga Kaya Van Eenoo Henkens Storm Tau de Camargo

Number of teams by provinces

Number of teams	Province or region	Team(s)
3	Antwerp	Beerschot Wilrijk, Mechelen and Westerlo
1	Brussels	Union SG
	Flemish Brabant	OH Leuven
	Limburg	Lommel
	Walloon Brabant	Tubize
	West Flanders	Roeselare

Notes

1. Includes eleven goals scored for Tubize, before his transfer to OH Leuven.
2. Includes one goal scored for OH Leuven, before his transfer to Roeselare.