The 2009–10 season of the Belgian Pro League (also known as Jupiler Pro League for sponsorship reasons) was the 107th season of top-tier football in Belgium. The season began on 31 July 2009 with the first matches of the regular season, and ended in May 2010 with the last matches of the playoff round. Standard Liège were the defending champions.

The competition underwent a significant overhaul for this season by reducing the number of teams and, for the first time in the history of the league, introducing a playoff system to determine the Belgian champions.

On April 18, 2010, Anderlecht became champions as a result of a 1–2 victory in Bruges against one of their main rivals, Club Brugge.

Changes from 2008–09

Structural changes The league size has been reduced from eighteen to sixteen teams. Further, the competition has been split into two stages, a conventional season and playoffs.

The participating clubs will first play a conventional round-robin schedule for a total of 30 matches. After the conclusion of those matches, the team ranked 16th will be directly relegated to the Belgian Second Division, while every other team will play in a playoff round according to its league table position.

The first six teams will play in the Championship playoff. Points earned during the regular season are halved with an odd number of points being rounded up. The round will be played on a round-robin schedule. The winner of this round has won the Belgian championship and will participate in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League. The runners-up will also play in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, while the third-placed team will enter the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. Finally, the fourth-placed team will have to compete in a single match (called Testmatch) against the winner of the Europa League playoff (see below) for one spot in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

The teams finishing seventh through fourteenth will play in the Europa League playoff and start with zero points. The round will be played in two groups, with teams in positions 7, 9, 12 and 14 comprising Group A, and the remaining teams comprising Group B. Each group will be played on a round-robin schedule. The winners of these groups will then compete in a two-legged series to earn the right to play against the fourth-placed team of the Championship playoff for one spot in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

The 15th-placed team will participate in the Relegation playoff, along with the teams ranked second through fifth in the Belgian Second Division. The winners of the playoff will earn a place in the 2010–11 Belgian First Division.

Team changes Mons and Tubize were relegated. Sint-Truiden was promoted. Roeselare beat Dender, Lierse and Antwerp in the playoffs and was thus allowed to remain in the league. Dender was relegated while Lierse and Antwerp remained in the second division.

Team information

Stadia and locations

Club Location Venue CapacityAnderlechtConstant Vanden Stock Stadium 28,063BrugesJan Breydel Stadium 29,415CharleroiStade du Pays de Charleroi 24,891BrugesJan Breydel Stadium 29,415GenkCristal Arena 24,900GhentJules Ottenstadion 12,919AntwerpOlympisch Stadion 12,771KortrijkGuldensporen Stadion 9,500LokerenDaknamstadion 10,000MechelenVeolia Stadium Achter de Kazerne 13,123MouscronStade Le Canonnier 11,300RoeselareSchiervelde Stadion 9,036Sint-TruidenStaaienveld 11,250LiègeStade Maurice Dufrasne 30,000WesterloHet Kuipje 8,200WaregemRegenboogstadion 8,500

Personnel and sponsoring

Club Chairman Current manager Team captain Shirt sponsor Roger Vanden Stock Ariel Jacobs Olivier DeschachtBNP Paribas Fortis Frans Schotte Glen De Boeck Denis VianeA D M B Abbas BayatPosition Vacant Adlène GuediouraVOO Pol Jonckheere Adrie Koster Stijn StijnenDexia Harry Lemmens Franky Vercauteren João CarlosEuphony Ivan De Witte Michel Preud'homme Bernd ThijsVDK Jos Verhaegen Jos Daerden Kurt Van DoorenQuick Jozef Allijns Georges Leekens Brecht VerbruggheDigipass by VASCO Roger Lambrecht Emilio Ferrera Olivier DollEdialux Johan Timmermans Peter Maes Jonas IvensTelenet Philippe DufermontPosition Vacant Walter BaseggioFrinver Promotions Luc Espeel Dennis Van Wijk Stefaan TangheDeceuninck Roland Duchâtelet Guido Brepoels Peter DelorgeBelisol Reto Stiffler Dominique D'Onofrio Steven DefourBASE Herman Wijnants Jan Ceulemans Jef DelenWilly Naessens Willy Naessens Francky Dury Ludwin Van NieuwenhuyzeEnfinity, Petrus

Managerial changes

During summer break Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Replaced by Date of appointment Position in table Genk Pierre Denier Hans Visser (caretakers) Caretakers replaced 5 March 2009 Hein Vanhaezebrouck 17 May 2009 Pre-Season Club Brugge Jacky Mathijssen Mutual consent 17 May 2009 Adrie Koster 17 May 2009 Pre-Season Kortrijk Hein Vanhaezebrouck Signed at Genk on 30 March 2009. 17 May 2009 Georges Leekens 28 May 2009 Pre-Season Charleroi John Collins End of contract 17 May 2009 Stéphane Demol 2 June 2009 Pre-Season Mouscron Enzo Scifo Resigned 6 June 2009 Miroslav Đukić 10 June 2009 Pre-Season

During the season Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Replaced by Date of appointment Position in table Germinal Beerschot Aimé Anthuenis Sacked 31 August 2009 Jos Daerden 3 September 2009 14th Lokeren Aleksandar Janković Sacked 25 October 2009 Jacky Mathijssen 25 October 2009 14th Mouscron Miroslav Đukić Resigned 30 October 2009 Hans Galjé 2 November 2009 15th Charleroi Stéphane Demol Resigned 31 October 2009 Tommy Craig 20 November 2009 13th Genk Hein Vanhaezebrouck Sacked 29 November 2009 Franky Vercauteren 6 December 2009 12th Mouscron Hans Galjé Contract annulled by bankruptcy 28 December 2009 10th Lokeren Jacky Mathijssen Mutual consent 25 January 2010 Emilio Ferrera 28 January 2010 15th Standard Liège László Bölöni Resigned 10 February 2010 Dominique D'Onofrio 10 February 2010 6th Charleroi Tommy Craig Sacked 14 April 2010 Jacky Mathijssen 4 June 2010 13th (4th in Playoff)

Regular season

Financial troubles of Mouscron During the season, Mouscron got into financial trouble. This caused months of debate and several law procedures, with the fate of Mouscron changing from week to week. The board of Mouscron finally accepted the bankruptcy of Mouscron on 28 December 2009. At that point, the last two matches of Mouscron had already been forfeited as many players refused to play due to wages from November and December not being paid; three forfeits in a row would have also caused immediate elimination and relegation to the Belgian Third Division.

As a result of the bankruptcy and relegation, Mouscron's record was expunged.

League table

Positions by round Note: The classification was made after the weekend (or midweek) of each matchday, so postponed matches were only processed at the time they were played to represent the real evolution in standings. The postponed matches are: Matchday 19: Mechelen vs. Germinal Beerschot of 18 December, Charleroi vs. Standard and Anderlecht vs. Club Brugge of 20 December. The matches will be played in the beginning of February, between the 24th and 25th matchday. Matchday 22: Club Brugge vs. Westerlo of 16 January which was played during the 24th matchday on 30 January. Matchday 23: Cercle Brugge vs. Charleroi of 23 January (as a result of the first leg of the quarter final of the Belgian Cup between Anderlecht and Cercle Brugge being played on this date). The new date for this match is 24 February, between matchdays 27 and 28. Matchday 24: Sint-Truiden vs. Westerlo of 30 January (as a result of the postponement of the match Club Brugge vs. Westerlo to this date) is postponed to 3 February, which is between matchdays 24 and 25. Because of snowfall, both Roeselare vs. Genk and Charleroi vs. Lokeren were postponed. The match Charleroi vs. Lokeren was originally scheduled to be played on February 10 between matchdays 25 and 26, but was postponed again because of more snow and will now be played on March 10 between matchdays 28 and 29. Roeselare vs. Genk was rescheduled to 24 February, between matchdays 27 and 28. Matchday 26: Yet again snow caused several matches to be postponed, in this case Mechelen-Genk, Cercle Brugge-Lokeren, Charleroi-Anderlecht and Germinal Beerschot-Zulte-Waregem. All matches were rescheduled to be played during the weekend of the 29th matchday, on March 6 and 7. Matchday 29: Due to the rescheduling of several matches to the first weekend of March, when this matchday was to be played, the whole matchday was postponed one week. With both Anderlecht and Standard Liège still playing in the UEFA Europa League on Thursdays, all matches will be played on Sunday 14 March at 20:00. Matchday 30: With matchday 29 moved to 14 March, matchday 30 was also rescheduled, to Sunday 21 March.

On top of that, the results of Mouscron were annulled between matchdays 20 and 21, causing many shifts between those matchdays. Also, for the rest of the season, there will be no point at which all teams have played the same number of matches, until at the end.

Results Note: All Mouscron results listed below were expunged after the club had to declare bankruptcy during the season. They are listed here for information purposes. Matches which were to be competed after Mouscron's exemption have been shaded.

Championship playoff The points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. Thus, Anderlecht started with 35 points, Club Brugge with 29, Gent with 25, Kortrijk 23 and both Sint-Truiden and Zulte-Waregem started with 21.

Playoff table

Positions by round

Results

Europa League playoff Group A

Group B

Europa League playoff final The winners of both playoff groups will compete in a two-legged match. The winners on aggregate will compete in another match (called Testmatch) against a team from the championship playoff (see below). If both teams are tied after two matches, the away goals rule will be applied. Should both teams still be tied afterwards, thirty minutes of extra time will be played and, if necessary, a penalty shootout will be conducted.

Genk won 5–2 on aggregate.

Testmatches Europa League The fourth-placed team from the championship playoff and the winners of the Europa League playoff competed for one spot in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.

Note: The spot in the second qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League was taken by Cercle Brugge, who was the runners-up of the 2009–10 Belgian Cup to Champions League-qualified Gent.

Genk won 5–3 on aggregate.

Goalscorers The list of goalscorers is split up: first there is the list of goalscorers during the regular competition, deciding the official title of league 'topscorer', which was won by Romelu Lukaku. After this, the goalscorers in the play-offs are listed below in a second list. Because not all teams get equal matches in the playoffs, the goals during the playoffs did not count to determine the top scorer and therefore there are two separate lists.

Regular competition

Top goalscorers Position Player Club Goals1 Romelu Lukaku Anderlecht152 Dorge Kouemaha Club Brugge13 Ibrahim Sidibe Sint-Truiden134 Teddy Chevalier Zulte Waregem12 Cyril Théréau Charleroi126 Dawid Janczyk Lokeren (9) and Germinal Beerschot (2)117 Milan Jovanović Standard Liège108 Christian Benteke Kortrijk9 Mbark Boussoufa Anderlecht9 Elimane Coulibaly Gent9 Dominic Foley Cercle Brugge9 Faris Haroun Germinal Beerschot9136 players8195 players72411 players63511 players54617 players46319 players38238 players212060 players1Own goals12Total goals614Total games228Average per game

Other scorers 8 goals (6 players)

Mahamadou Dissa (Roeselare) Julien Gorius (Mechelen) Oleg Iachtchouk (Cercle Brugge) Ibou (Kortrijk) Jaycee (Mouscron) Aloys Nong (Mechelen)

7 goals (5 players)