2020–21 Belgian First Division A

The 2020–21 Belgian First Division A was the 118th season of top-tier football in Belgium. As part of a proposal by the Jupiler Pro League's board of directors accepted by the General Assembly on 15 May 2020, the 2020–21 season would involve shortened playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only the top four teams would play for the title, while teams five through eight would play for the remaining ticket into Europe.^[1] The league fixtures were announced on 8 July 2020.^[2] Club Brugge successfully defended their title from the previous season, finishing level on points in the title play-offs with Racing Genk, as regular season runners-up Royal Antwerp's challenge faded.

Belgian First Division A

Season	2020–21
Dates	8 August 2020 – 23 May 2021
Champions	Club Brugge
Relegated	Excel Mouscron Waasland-Beveren
Champions League	Club Brugge Genk
Europa League	Royal Antwerp
Europa Conference League	Gent Anderlecht
Matches played	306
Goals scored	914 (2.99 per match)
Top goalscorer	Paul Onuachu (30 goals)
Biggest home win	Gent 5–1 Beerschot (4 October 2020) Genk 4–0 Eupen (30 October 2020) Gent 4–0 Excel Mouscron (15 February 2021) Gent 4–0 Charleroi (10 April 2021) Genk 4–0 Sint-Truiden (11 April 2021)
Biggest away win	Zulte Waregem 0–6 Club Brugge (20 September 2020)
Highest scoring	Kortrijk 5–5 Beerschot (7 November 2020)
Longest winning run	10 matches Club Brugge
Longest unbeaten run	12 matches Club Brugge
Longest winless run	10 matches Cercle Brugge Excel Mouscron Waasland-Beveren
Longest losing run	7 matches Cercle Brugge
← 2019–20 2021–22 → All statistics correct as of 20 May 2021.

Team changes

Waasland-Beveren were originally relegated to the Belgian First Division B, as they were the bottom-placed team when the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A stopped prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, following legal proceedings, they remained in the top-flight, and instead, the league was expanded to 18 teams, with both OH Leuven and Beerschot being promoted (normally only one of them would have gained promotion). Technically, under its current form and owners, Beerschot will make its debut in the top tier of Belgian football, although in reality two teams with the same identity have played at the top level: Beerschot VAC (81 seasons, last in 1990–91) and Beerschot AC (until its bankruptcy at the end of the 2012–13 season, and known as Germinal Beerschot from 1999 until 2011). OH Leuven returned to the top tier after an absence of four seasons, when they dropped to the last place on the ultimate matchday of the 2015–16 season.

Format change

With now 18 instead of 16 teams, the format has changed somewhat. While the season still starts with an initial round-robin phase in which all teams play each other twice, the end of season play-offs have been shortened temporarily and for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons only. The title playoffs will now only be played by the top four teams (instead of six) and the Europa play-offs will now be played by the teams finishing fifth through eight (instead of all teams finishing below 6th). As a result, for all teams finishing below 8th, the season will be over upon completion of the round-robin phase, with the team in last position being relegated. One exception is the team finishing in 17th position, as this team will play a promotion-relegation play off against the 2nd-place finisher in the 2020–21 Belgian First Division B, with the winner playing in the 2021–22 Belgian First Division A.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Anderlecht

Antwerp

Charleroi

Bruges

Genk

Gent

Kortrijk

Mechelen

Standard Liège

Eupen

OH Leuven

Oostende

Mouscron

Sint-Truiden

Waasland-
Beveren

Zulte Waregem

Antwerp teams
Antwerp
Beerschot
Bruges teams
Cercle Brugge
Club Brugge

Locations of the 2020–21 Belgian First Division A teams

Matricule	Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
35	Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium	21,500
1	Antwerp	Antwerp	Bosuilstadion	12,975
13	Beerschot	Antwerp	Olympic Stadium	12,771
12	Cercle Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
22	Charleroi	Charleroi	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	14,000
3	Club Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
4276	Eupen	Eupen	Kehrwegstadion	08,363
322	Genk	Genk	Luminus Arena	24,956
7	Gent	Ghent	Ghelamco Arena	20,000
19	Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Guldensporen Stadion	09,399
25	Mechelen	Mechelen	AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne	16,700
216	Mouscron	Mouscron	Stade Le Canonnier	10,571
31	Oostende	Ostend	Versluys Arena	08,432
18	Oud-Heverlee Leuven	Leuven	Den Dreef	10,000
373	Sint-Truiden	Sint-Truiden	Stayen	14,600
16	Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,023
4068	Waasland-Beveren	Beveren	Freethiel Stadion	08,190
5381	Zulte Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	12,500

Number of teams by provinces

Number of teams	Province or region	Team(s)
5	West Flanders	Cercle Brugge, Club Brugge, Kortrijk, Oostende and Zulte Waregem
3	Antwerp	Antwerp, Beerschot and Mechelen
2	East Flanders	Gent and Waasland-Beveren
	Hainaut	Charleroi and Mouscron
	Liège	Eupen and Standard Liège
	Limburg	Genk and Sint-Truiden
1	Brussels	Anderlecht
	Flemish Brabant	Oud-Heverlee Leuven

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Anderlecht	Vincent Kompany[n 1]	Joma	DVV Insurance (home) Candriam (away)
Antwerp	Franky Vercauteren[n 2]	Jako	Ghelamco
Beerschot	Will Still[n 3]	XIII[n 4]	Yelo
Cercle Brugge	Yves Vanderhaeghe[n 5]	Kappa	Napoleon Games
Charleroi	Karim Belhocine[n 6]	Kappa	Lotto
Club Brugge	Philippe Clement	Macron	Unibet
Eupen	Beñat San José	Adidas	Qatar Airways
Excel Mouscron	Jorge Simão[n 7]	Uhlsport	Star Casino
Genk	John van den Brom[n 8]	Nike	Beobank
Gent	Hein Vanhaezebrouck[n 9]	Craft	VDK Bank
Kortrijk	Luka Elsner[n 10]	Jako	AGO Jobs & HR
Mechelen	Wouter Vrancken	Jartazi	Telenet
OH Leuven	Marc Brys	Adidas	King Power
Oostende	Alexander Blessin	Kipsta	Star Casino
Sint-Truiden	Peter Maes[n 11]	Macron	DMM.com
Standard Liège	Mbaye Leye[n 12]	New Balance	VOO
Waasland-Beveren	Nicky Hayen	Uhlsport	Star Casino
Zulte-Waregem	Francky Dury	Patrick	Napoleon Games

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Cercle Brugge	Bernd Storck	End of contract[3]	End of 2019–20 season	Pre-season	Paul Clement	3 July 2020[4]
Antwerp	László Bölöni	End of contract[5]			Ivan Leko	20 May 2020[6]
Sint-Truiden	Miloš Kostić	Mutual consent[7]			Kevin Muscat	2 June 2020[8]
Waasland-Beveren	Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced			Nicky Hayen	4 June 2020 [9]
Oostende	Adnan Čustović	Replaced[10]			Alexander Blessin	7 June 2020[10]
Standard Liège	Michel Preud'homme	Resigned[11]			Philippe Montanier	10 June 2020[12]
Excel Mouscron	Bernd Hollerbach	Mutual consent[13]			Fernando Da Cruz	18 July 2020[14]
Anderlecht	Franky Vercauteren	Kompany became sole manager[15]	17 August 2020	3rd	Vincent Kompany	17 August 2020[15]
Gent	Jess Thorup	Sacked[16]	20 August 2020	16th	László Bölöni	20 August 2020[16]
Gent	László Bölöni	Sacked[17]	14 September 2020	16th	Wim De Decker	14 September 2020
Genk	Hannes Wolf	Sacked[18]	15 September 2020	14th	Domenico Olivieri (caretaker)	15 September 2020
Genk	Domenico Olivieri	Caretaker replaced[19]	24 September 2020	14th	Jess Thorup	24 September 2020
Excel Mouscron	Fernando Da Cruz	Sacked[20]	19 October 2020	18th	Jorge Simão	20 October 2020[21]
Genk	Jess Thorup	Hired by Copenhagen[22]	2 November 2020	7th	John van den Brom[23]	8 November 2020 [n 13]
Sint-Truiden	Kevin Muscat	Sacked[24]	1 December 2020	16th	Stef Van Winckel (caretaker)	1 December 2020
Gent	Wim De Decker	Sacked[25]	3 December 2020	12th	Hein Vanhaezebrouck[26]	4 December 2020
Sint-Truiden	Stef Van Winckel	Caretaker replaced[27]	7 December 2020	17th	Peter Maes[27]	7 December 2020
Standard Liège	Philippe Montanier	Sacked[28]	26 December 2020	11th	Mbaye Leye[29]	30 December 2020
Antwerp	Ivan Leko	Hired by Shanghai SIPG[30]	29 December 2020	5th	Franky Vercauteren[31]	4 January 2021
Beerschot	Hernán Losada	Hired by D.C. United[32]	17 January 2021	10th	Will Still[33]	19 January 2021
Kortrijk	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Sacked[34]	31 January 2021	15th	Luka Elsner[34]	31 January 2021
Cercle Brugge	Paul Clement	Sacked[35]	1 February 2021	17th	Yves Vanderhaeghe[36]	3 February 2021

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Club Brugge (C)	34	24	4	6	73	26	+47	76	Qualification for the Europa Conference League and Play-offs I[a]
2	Antwerp	34	18	6	10	57	48	+9	60	Qualification for the Play-offs I
3	Anderlecht	34	15	13	6	51	34	+17	58
4	Genk[b]	34	16	8	10	67	48	+19	56
5	Oostende[c]	34	15	8	11	49	41	+8	53	Qualification for the Play-offs II
6	Standard Liège	34	13	11	10	52	41	+11	50
7	Gent	34	14	7	13	55	42	+13	49
8	Mechelen	34	13	9	12	54	54	0	48
9	Beerschot	34	14	5	15	58	64	−6	47
10	Zulte Waregem	34	14	4	16	53	69	−16	46
11	OH Leuven	34	12	9	13	54	59	−5	45
12	Eupen	34	10	13	11	44	55	−11	43
13	Charleroi	34	11	9	14	46	49	−3	42
14	Kortrijk	34	11	6	17	44	57	−13	39
15	Sint-Truiden	34	10	8	16	41	52	−11	38
16	Cercle Brugge	34	11	3	20	40	51	−11	36
17	Waasland-Beveren (R)	34	8	7	19	44	70	−26	31	Qualification for the Relegation play-off
18	Excel Mouscron[c] (R)	34	7	10	17	32	54	−22	31	Relegation to First Division B

Source: Jupiler Pro League (in Dutch), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away matches won; 6) Away goal difference; 7) Away goals scored; 8) Play-off.^[40]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The regular season winners will qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League if they do not qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League in the playoffs or for the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League through the 2020–21 Belgian Cup.
2. Genk qualifies for at least the play-off round of the Europa League through winning the 2021 Belgian Cup.
3. On 14 April 2021 news was released that both Excel Mouscron and Oostende had not received a Belgian professional football license for the coming season, a requirement to play at the top two levels of Belgian football. For Oostende, a lack of financial transparency, together with generally poor quality and incompleteness of the submitted report, was given as the main reason by the committee for not awarding a license, while Excel Mouscron was refused a license as besides insufficient transparency, the committee also questioned several cash flows and whether the club was creditworthy in general, also due to the fact that the wages for the months of February and March had not yet been paid at that point. For Excel Mouscron, it was already the sixth year running the license was (initially) refused, however, the club has appealed the decision with the Belgian Court for Sports Arbitrage (BAS) successfully on each occasion and intended to do so again. Oostende was planning to launch an appeal as well, with the BAS to rule on the matter for both clubs before the 10th of May. Both clubs were allowed to add new documents to their case, but in case they however still did not receive a license after appeal, knew they would have been forced to relegate to the 2021–22 Belgian Division 2 and start the season with a 3-point penalty.^[37] Both Excel Mouscron and Oostende were however eventually awarded a license after appeal, meaning Oostende remained at the top level, while Excel Mouscron only dropped one level.^[38][39]

Results

Home \ Away	CLU	ANT	AND	GNK	OOS	STA	GNT	KVM	BEE	ZWA	OHL	EUP	CHA	KVK	STR	CER	W-B	EXM
Club Brugge	—	0–2	3–0	3–2	2–1	3–1	0–1	2–2	0–1	3–0	3–0	3–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	4–1	4–2
Antwerp	0–2	—	1–4	3–2	1–2	1–1	1–0	4–1	3–2	0–1	3–2	2–2	2–1	4–2	0–0	1–0	3–2	1–1
Anderlecht	2–1	1–0	—	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	4–1	2–2	1–1	3–0	0–2	3–1	2–0	0–0	1–1
Genk	1–2	4–2	1–2	—	2–2	2–2	1–1	3–1	1–2	3–2	1–1	4–0	2–1	2–0	4–0	2–0	1–1	4–1
Oostende	1–3	1–1	2–2	3–1	—	2–2	2–1	2–0	1–2	3–0	3–1	1–1	3–2	2–1	1–3	1–1	0–2	3–0
Standard Liège	1–1	1–1	1–3	0–0	1–0	—	2–1	2–2	3–0	2–2	1–1	2–2	3–2	2–1	1–2	1–0	3–1	0–1
Gent	0–4	0–1	1–1	1–2	1–0	2–1	—	1–0	5–1	0–3	2–3	2–2	4–0	1–2	1–1	1–0	3–0	4–0
Mechelen	0–3	3–0	2–2	0–0	0–1	0–4	1–1	—	2–3	4–2	2–2	3–0	3–3	1–2	2–0	2–3	2–3	2–1
Beerschot	0–3	1–2	2–1	5–2	1–2	0–3	1–1	1–2	—	3–1	4–2	0–1	2–1	0–0	6–3	1–1	3–2	2–2
Zulte Waregem	0–6	1–3	2–2	1–2	2–1	3–2	2–7	1–2	0–3	—	2–3	2–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–0	4–1	1–0
OH Leuven	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–3	1–2	1–0	0–3	1–2	0–1	2–1	—	1–1	1–3	3–1	2–2	2–1	1–2	2–0
Eupen	0–4	0–2	2–0	1–4	1–1	0–4	2–1	1–1	3–1	2–3	3–3	—	3–1	2–0	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–1
Charleroi	1–1	2–0	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	3–1	1–1	1–1	2–3	—	0–0	0–0	3–0	0–2	1–1
Kortrijk	1–2	1–3	1–3	2–1	3–1	2–1	1–0	1–4	5–5	1–2	0–3	0–0	1–3	—	0–2	1–2	1–3	3–0
Sint-Truiden	1–2	2–3	0–1	1–2	0–0	2–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	1–2	3–1	0–2	1–2	0–0	—	3–0	1–1	0–2
Cercle Brugge	1–2	2–1	0–0	1–5	0–1	0–1	5–2	0–1	2–1	1–3	3–0	1–2	3–4	0–1	3–0	—	2–0	1–2
Waasland-Beveren	0–2	0–3	2–4	1–1	2–0	1–2	1–4	2–3	1–2	1–5	1–3	1–0	1–1	3–4	2–4	0–2	—	2–0
Excel Mouscron	0–0	2–3	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	3–1	0–1	2–2	0–2	1–1	0–3	3–2	1–2	1–1	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League (in Dutch), Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Play-offs

Play-Off I

The points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. As a result, the teams started with the following points before the playoff: Club Brugge 38, Antwerp 30, Anderlecht 29 and Genk 28.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		CLU	GNK	ANT	AND
1	Club Brugge (C)	6	1	3	2	8	11	−3	44	Qualification for the Champions League group stage		—	1–2	2–1	2–2
2	Genk	6	5	1	0	15	5	+10	44	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round		3–0	—	4–0	1–1
3	Antwerp	6	1	2	3	6	11	−5	35	Qualification for the Europa League play-off round		0–0	2–3	—	1–0
4	Anderlecht	6	0	4	2	9	11	−2	33	Qualification for the Europa Conference League third qualifying round		3–3	1–2	2–2	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League (in Dutch), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Regular season finishing position.^[41]
(C) Champions

Play-Off II

The points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. As a result, the teams started with the following points before the playoff: Oostende 27, Standard 25, Gent 25 and Mechelen 24. The points of Oostende and Gent were rounded up, therefore in case of any ties on points at the end of the playoffs, the half point will be deducted for these teams.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		GNT	MEC	OOS	STA
1	Gent	6	4	1	1	13	6	+7	38	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round		—	2–2	2–1	2–0
2	Mechelen	6	3	2	1	15	11	+4	35			1–2	—	5–3	3–1
3	Oostende	6	2	1	3	15	16	−1	34			0–4	2–2	—	6–2
4	Standard Liège	6	1	0	5	7	17	−10	28			2–1	1–2	1–3	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League (in Dutch), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Regular season finishing position.^[42]

European competition play-offs

Originally, the fourth-placed team of the play-offs I (or third-placed team if the regular season winners finish fourth) and the first-placed team of the play-offs II would play two home-and-away matches to determine the Europa Conference League play-off winner, which would qualify for the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League. However, since Genk, winners of the 2020–21 Belgian Cup, finished in the regular season top four and qualified for play-offs I, this guaranteed that all four teams of play-offs I would qualify for European competitions. As a result, the play-off final was not played, and the first-placed team of the play-offs II, KAA Gent, qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League.^{[citation needed]}

Promotion-Relegation play-off

The team finishing in 17th place competes in a two-legged match with the runner-up of the 2020–21 Belgian First Division B, with the aggregate winner to play in the 2021–22 Belgian First Division A, while the losing team will take part in the 2021–22 Belgian First Division B.^{[citation needed]}

On 11 April 2021, Seraing from the Belgian First Division B qualified for the promotion-relegation playoff as a loss by Lommel against Union SG meant Seraing could no longer be overtaken for second place. On 8 May 2021, Seraing was promoted to the 2021–22 Belgian First Division A after a 6–3 aggregate win in the two-legged series and Waasland-Beveren was relegated to the 2021–22 Belgian First Division B.

Seraing	1–1	Waasland-Beveren
Mikautadze 90+2' (pen.)	Report	Frey 70' (pen.)

1 May 2021 (2021-05-01)

18:30 CEST

Stade du Pairay, Seraing

Attendance: 0

Referee: Lawrence Visser

Waasland-Beveren	2–5	Seraing
Frey 15' (pen.) Sinani 51'	Report	Mikautadze 22' (pen.), 70' Sabaouni 45+4' Faye 62' Bernier 90+5'

8 May 2021 (2021-05-08)

20:45 CEST

Freethiel Stadion, Beveren

Attendance: 0

Referee: Alexandre Boucaut

Seraing won 6–3 on aggregate.

Season statistics

Top scorers - regular season only

As of matches played on 18 April 2021.^[43]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Paul Onuachu	Genk	30
2	Thomas Henry	OH Leuven	21
3	Gianni Bruno	Zulte Waregem	20
4	Yuma Suzuki	Sint-Truiden	17
	Roman Yaremchuk	Gent
6	Raphael Holzhauser	Beerschot	16
	Ike Ugbo	Cercle Brugge
8	Smail Prevljak	Eupen	15
9	Theo Bongonda	Genk	14
	Noa Lang	Club Brugge
	Lukas Nmecha	Anderlecht

Top assists

As of matches played on 18 April 2021.

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Raphael Holzhauser	Beerschot	16
	Xavier Mercier	OH Leuven
3	Andrew Hjulsager	Oostende	10
	Junya Ito	Genk
5	Ruud Vormer	Club Brugge	9
6	Lior Refaelov	Antwerp	8
7	Omar Govea	Zulte Waregem	7
	Noa Lang	Club Brugge
	Ryota Morioka	Charleroi
	Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe	Gent
	Rob Schoofs	Mechelen
	Faïz Selemani	Kortrijk
	Hans Vanaken	Club Brugge

Awards

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Player of the Year	Paul Onuachu	Genk
Top goalscorer
Manager of the Year	Alexander Blessin	Oostende
Breakthrough of the Year	Noa Lang	Club Brugge

Team of the Year[44]
Goalkeeper	Simon Mignolet (Club Brugge)
Defence	Clinton Mata (Club Brugge)	Arthur Theate (Oostende)		Ritchie De Laet (Royal Antwerp)
Midfield	Lior Refaelov (Royal Antwerp)	Bryan Heynen (Genk)	Raphael Holzhauser (Beerschot)	Xavier Mercier (OH Leuven)
Attack	Junya Ito (Genk)	Paul Onuachu (Genk)		Noa Lang (Club Brugge)

Notes

1. During the first two matchdays, Kompany & Franky Vercauteren were co-managing the squad, with Kompany also registered as player (though not playing through injury). However thereafter Kompany stopped his playing career and became the sole manager of the squad.
2. Ivan Leko was the manager for matchdays 1 through 19.
3. Hernán Losada was the manager for matchdays 1 through 21.
4. An apparel brand made by club.
5. Paul Clement was the manager for matchdays 1 through 25.
6. Karim Belhocine was the manager for all matches of the regular season, after which he was sacked but remained manager until the last training session of the season. Note that Charleroi had not qualified for the play-offs and hence had no more matches scheduled.
7. Fernando Da Cruz was managing the team for matchdays 1 to 9.
8. Hannes Wolf was manager for matchdays 1 to 4, Domenico Olivieri was caretaker manager on matchdays 5 and 12; and Jess Thorup managed the club from matchdays 6 through 11.
9. Jess Thorup was the manager for matchdays 1 and 2, László Bölöni led the club for matchdays 3 through 5 and Wim De Decker was in charge on matchdays 6 through 14.
10. Yves Vanderhaeghe was the manager for matchdays 1 through 25.
11. Kevin Muscat was the manager for matchdays 1 through 14 and Stef Van Winckel was caretaker manager on matchday 15.
12. Philippe Montanier was the manager for matchdays 1 through 19.
13. While van den Brom was announced on 6 November 2020, caretaker Domenico Olivieri was still leading the group during the match of 7 November 2020 against Sint-Truiden, with van den Brom only officially taking charge of 8 November 2020.