The Belgian Pro League board has officially recommended that the country’s top flight football season be ended early due to the coronavirus pandemic. If the recommendations are accepted later this month, Belgium would become the first European country to do so. At the time of writing, the country already has over 15,000 positive cases.
The league adopts a playoff system post the conclusion of the regular season. 29 of the 30 games under the regular season had been played before COVID saw the league being suspended. Club Brugge currently lead the season by 15 points from second place Gent. The playoff system sees the top six teams play each other home and away, with points carried forward from the regular season (but halved). So in theory, assuming both Brugge and Gent won their respective final league games, they would’ve come into the playoff with 37 and 29 points respectively. An eight point lead would’ve definitely been handy for Brugge in the playoffs, but with the rest of the top six (Gent, Charleroi, Antwerp, Standard, Mechelen), all boasting of strong home records, a home and away playoff round robin could’ve made things very interesting indeed.
This would then be Brugge’s third domestic league title this decade, following earlier triumphs in 2015/16 and 2017/18. It will also be Simon Mignolet’s first Belgian top flight trophy following his switch from Liverpool, and would mean that he’s won a league title before the Reds did! The 32 year old has been fantastic under the sticks for Brugge since his summer switch from Anfield- they’ve conceded the fewest goals of any team in the top six (14 goals from 29). If you think Mignolet could inspire Brugge to more silverware and spur them to greater heights next season, here is a nifty little code to augment your stake.
It’s also silverware for Percy Tau, the midfielder whose move to Belgium has seen millions of South African fans follow Brugge’s exploits on social media this season.
While Brugge’s dominance would probably have seen them win the playoffs, the team with the most reason to feel aggrieved would be Charleroi. They are just one point behind second placed Gent, have lost fewer games than them and also have a far better defensive record. Gent will now go into the qualifiers of the Champions League, with Charleroi having to settle for the Europa League. The CL offers greater money than the EL, and some Charleroi fans will clearly be ruing what could’ve been. Brugge, it must be remembered, got into the CL group stages via the same route this season, beating Dynamo Kyiv and LASK. Brugge also had a memorable CL campaign, holding Real Madrid to a draw at the Bernabeu, and also taking points off Galatasaray away from home.
From the relegation/promotion point of view, it remains to be seen whether the second leg of the playoff between Beerschot and OH Leuven goes ahead. Beerschot lead 1-0 from the first leg, and if the return tie cannot be played, the idea is to get both teams promoted as well as allow Waasland-Beveren (currently bottom in the Pro League) to keep their top flight spot, and expand the first division to 18 teams next season.