Cheeseslices

The league system – It’s a pretty simple concept really; if you’re
consistently the best over a season, you win. There are a few variations
across the world – like in England if you’re level on points then goal
difference is taken into account, in Spain the winner is the one who has
the best record in the head-to-head fixtures – but ultimately the best
sits on top and the worst props up the rest; Easy.

I wrote recently about the Argentine league and how a champion is
crowned in 19 matches, but relegation takes 3 years. This is ‘odd’ to
say the least but follows similar formats; the best wins and the
(consistently) worst goes down.

Enter Belgium. It’s a country not so much famed for it’s footballing
prowess, but which admittedly chucks out a half-decent player every few
years and everyone knows that there are a few clubs kicking about, but
knowledge usually ends after Anderlecht, Club Brugges and Axel Witsel.

It may come as a surprise to you then that before the beginning of last
season the Jupiler Pro League (the top division in Belgium, sometimes
just called the Pro League) underwent a serious upheaval and almost all
of the format was altered. Yet being a generally rubbish and
uninteresting league, not many waves were made over this side of the
Channel, but we should take note of the current format if only to make
sure that nothing even remotely similar happens over here. The league
is, put simply, bizarre. Get your pen and paper ready because to
understand this, you may need to annotate your own notes.

The number of teams was, in 2009, reduced from 18 to 16, and each team
plays each other twice (home & away) to determine standings for the
round-robin section of the season. It’s how the Premier League works.
But… the league is then split into 3 playoffs (see below) with
participating teams determined through their original league position,
which is of course 1 to 16.

Teams ranked 1 to 6 enter the Championship Playoff to decide the overall
Belgian champion. The points which the teams have gained through the
earlier season are halved and, if necessary, rounded up to the next
whole number (e.g. 62 points becomes 31, as does 61 points). The 6 teams
start with their new number of points and play a further home and away
round-robin. The winner of /this /mini-league is the Belgian champion
and enters qualification for the Champion’s League. Should there be a
tie for positions, the extra half point (where necessary) is deducted
first, then it goes to total wins and then goal difference. The 2nd
place team also enters qualifying for the Champions League and the 3rd
place enters qualification for the Europa League. The 4th place team
isn’t finished yet, and must play against a further opponent, to be
decided in the second of the Belgian Pro League mini-leagues, described
below.

Teams ranked 7 to 14 enter the Europa League Playoff. Contrary to the
Championship League Playoff, all of these teams start on 0 points, but
are split into 2 groups; original league positions 7,9,12 and 14 are in
Group A, and league positions 8,10,11 and 13 in Group B. Note that we
are now in a group, within a league, within a league. The teams all play
a home/away round-robin format within their own group, with the winners
of the two groups having a two match playoff to decide the overall
winner. Note that this winner is essentially now in the equivalent of
7th place in the original league. In a twist which makes Belgian
football totally unfair, this ‘Europa League Group mini-league playoff’
winner (or something similar) plays against the team who came 4th in the
Championship playoff in a 2-match ‘Europa League Testmatch’ playoff. The
winner goes into the the qualifying stages of the Europa League and the
team in 7th could eclipse those who finished in 5th and 6th in the
Championship Playoff. Now, just to throw a proverbial spanner in the
works, It is also worth noting here that in the season just gone
(2010-2011) the Europa League Playoff was rendered void and played as
friendlies. This is because it was between Westerlo (who had qualified
as they made it to the Belgian Cup final) and Club Bruges who hadn’t
qualified for Europe, but whom Westerlo gave their free pass to.
Westerlo played Standard Liege in the Cup final, but Standard had
already qualified for the Champion’s League as they finished 2nd in the
Championship Playoff. Ergo, as Westerlo had taken the automatic Europa
League spot from the Belgian Cup Final (which they ironically lost),
they gave Club Bruges the Europa League Testmatch as a metaphorical
‘walkover’ and thus both teams made it through to Europe. That was kind
of Westerlo, wasn’t it?

Now… The third and final part of the post-season playoffs is the
relegation battle. It is hotly contested between 15th and 16th place,
regardless of how many points clear 15th are from the league losers. The
2 teams enter their own league (of 2) and before the first game, the
team in 15th is given a 3 point head-start. Up to 5 games are then
played alternately at the 2 clubs home stadiums with the team in 15th
place team having home advantage in the first match. At the end of the 5
games, or when one team has amassed enough points so as the other cannot
win, the league is over. The team who lose this league (essentially the
team who are now deemed as the worst and fill 16th place) goes down. But
that’s not all. The team who /win/ this mini Relegation Playoff League
enter /another/ league called the ‘Second Division Final Round’ and
which consists of 4 teams; themselves and three teams in the Belgian
Second Division. Now take a breath and we shall begin again.

The Belgian Second Division consists of 18 teams playing a home and away
round-robin however not one, but four, tables are calculated; one for
results gained in Period 1 (the first 10 matches of the season), another
table for period 2 (the next 12 matches) and the same again for Period 3
(the final 12 matches). These three tables all start with blank records
for the next period (so after 10 matches, you start the league process
all over again on 0 points). However, at the same time, an *overall*
table is calculated in the same way as England with one team on top
after 34 matches. The team at the top of /this/ league is promoted
automatically, but the three teams who get into the Second Division
Final Round Playoff are the three teams who won the three periods (i.e.
the table toppers of the three mini tables calculated throughout the
season). If one team wins one or more of the three periods, then the end
of season promotion playoff league is filled with the next best team in
the /overall /season standings. This Second Division Final Round Playoff
is a simple home and away round-robin with the 4 teams all starting on 0
points and playing each other twice. The overall winner gets to play the
next season in the Pro League, which they could have been in the season
before anyway.

Now in order to play in the Pro League your team must have a Belgian
Professional Football License, which you can only get if you follow
certain criteria. If you fail to reach these criteria and win the
promotion playoff, then instead of being promoted to the Pro League, you
are relegated to the 3rd division, presumably for your incompetence and
lack of money.Fair?

So, in summary, the league system in Belgium is completely tits-up. If
you’re thinking “hang on… what about the teams that came 5th and 6th
in the Pro League Championship Playoff?” then it’s quite simple
really… they don’t get anything. It is therefore, in theory, possible
for the team that ends up in first place in the Pro League after the
first round-robin to not win anything and for the team who came 3rd from
bottom to qualify for Europe. Furthermore, you could end up being
consistently the best team in the 2nd division and be relegated to the
3rd division for your efforts.

It’s not all doom and gloom though… at least they don’t have our FA.
Shotgun not explaining that to Wayne Rooney.