The 2016–17 season of the Belgian First Division B began in August 2016 and ended on 28 April 2017. It was the inaugural season of the First Division B following a change in league format from the old Belgian Second Division. The fixtures were announced on 23 June 2016.

Although scoring most points overall, Lierse missed out on promotion as they came second in both the opening and closing tournament, leaving K.S.V. Roeselare and Antwerp to battle it out for promotion. Following thirteen years at the second level of Belgian football, Antwerp secured promotion on 11 March 2017. At the bottom end of the table, Lommel United suffered relegation as they could not overcome their deficit from the regular season during the relegation playoff.

Structural changes This season is the first under the name First Division B as a result of reforms in the Belgian football league system. The format of the league has been completely overhauled, with the season now consisting of two separate tournaments. The first tournament will be held from August to December, the second from January until April. The two tournament winners will play a two legged playoff to determine who is promoted to the 2017–18 Belgian First Division A. If a team wins both tournaments, it automatically clinches promotion. The top three teams in the aggregate table besides the promoted team will take part in the Europa League playoffs together with the teams in the 2016–17 Belgian First Division A finishing in positions 7 through 15. The remaining four teams will play a relegation playoff to determine the one team that will drop into the 2017–18 Belgian First Amateur Division.

Team changes Due to the reformation, only 7 teams of the previous season remained in the league, with 1 other being replaced. As a result, the league moved from 17 to 8 teams.

Out Due to the fact that 2015–16 Belgian Second Division champions WS Brussels were refused a Belgian professional football license, Eupen was promoted as runner-up instead, while WS Brussels was relegated to the 2016–17 Belgian First Amateur Division. All teams finishing below 9th place were also relegated into the 2016–17 Belgian First Amateur Division, which (starting from 10th place) included Dessel Sport, Seraing United, Virton, ASV Geel, Deinze, Patro Eisden Maasmechelen, Heist and Coxyde.

In OH Leuven were relegated from the Belgian Pro League after finishing in last place.

Team information

Stadiums and locations

Matricule Club City First season of current spell at second level</th> Coming from 2015–16 result Stadium Capacity1Antwerp2004–05Belgian Pro League3rd (D2)Bosuilstadion16,64912Bruges2015–16Belgian Pro League5th (D2)Jan Breydel Stadium29,9456142Leuven2016–17Belgian Pro League16th (D1)Den Dreef10,00030Lier2015–16Belgian Pro League7th (D2)Herman Vanderpoortenstadion14,5382554Lommel2005–06Belgian Third Division8th (D2)Soevereinstadion12,500134Roeselare2010–11Belgian Pro League9th (D2)Schiervelde Stadion9,0755632Tubize2009–10Belgian Pro League4th (D2)Stade Leburton9,00010Saint-Gilles, Brussels2015–16Belgian Third Division6th (D2)King Baudouin StadiumAs part of the reform the rules for obtaining a licence were changed, with clubs now required to have a stadium with a capacity of at least 8,000. As the Stade Joseph Marien has only a capacity of six thousand, Union will play one season in the King Baudouin Stadium while their home stadium is being expanded.50,122

Personnel and kits Club Manager Captain Kit Manufacturer Sponsors Antwerp Frederik Vanderbiest Kappa ONE Antwerp Cercle Brugge Vincent Euvrard Acerbis ADMB OH Leuven Emilio Ferrera Vermarc Just Eat Lierse Eric Van Meir Jako Wadi Degla Lommel United Karel Fraeye Legea Belien Auto Derdaele+ Roeselare Arnauld Mercier Joma Euro Shop Tubize Thierry Goudet Kappa No sponsor Union SG Marc Grosjean Patrick Culture et Formation

Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position Replaced by Date of appointment Antwerp David Gevaert Sacked End of 2015–16 season Pre-season Frederik Vanderbiest 19 May 2016 Cercle Brugge Frederik Vanderbiest Mutual Consent 18 May 2016 Vincent Euvrard 25 May 2016 Roeselare Franky Van der Elst Mutual Consent 18 May 2016 Arnauld Mercier 25 May 2016 Tubize Colbert Marlot Mutual Consent 8 June 2016 Thierry Goudet 8 June 2016 Tubize Thierry Goudet Sacked 17 August 2016 8th Régis Brouard 28 August 2016 Lommel United Karel Fraeye Sacked 8 October 2016 8th Walter Meeuws 20 October 2016 Antwerp Frederik Vanderbiest Sacked 11 October 2016 4th David Gevaert 15 October 2016 Cercle Brugge Vincent Euvrard Sacked 29 October 2016 7th José Riga 1 November 2016 Antwerp David Gevaert Resigned 10 November 2016 3rd Wim De Decker 17 November 2016 Lommel United Walter Meeuws Sacked 23 November 2016 Closing tournament: 6thOverall: 8th Tom Van Imschoot 23 November 2016 OH Leuven Emilio Ferrera Sacked 15 January 2017 Closing tournament: 6thOverall: 5th Dennis van Wijk 19 January 2017 Lierse Eric Van Meir Sacked 15 March 2017 Closing tournament: 2ndOverall: 1st Frederik Vanderbiest 17 March 2017 Tubize Régis Brouard Sacked 21 April 2017 Relegation play-offs: 2nd Sadio Demba 3 May 2017

League table Opening tournament

Closing tournament

Aggregate table

Promotion play-offs The winners of the opening tournament and the closing tournament meet in a two-legged match to determine the division champion, who will promote to the 2017–18 Belgian First Division A. The team finishing highest in the aggregate table will play the second leg at home. In case one team wins both the opening and the closing tournament, these matches will not be played and the team is promoted automatically.

On 6 November 2016, Roeselare won the opening tournament and was therefore assured of playing at least the promotion play-offs. Following a loss against Antwerp on the penultimate day of the closing tournament, Roeselare could no longer win the closing tournament (and direct promotion) and as a result the promotion play-offs would be held. On the final day of the closing tournament, Roeselare then held Lierse to a draw, denying them the play-offs and setting Roeselare up with Antwerp to decide promotion. Antwerp twice beat Roeselare and thereby allowed the club to return to the highest level of professional football in Belgium following thirteen seasons at the second level. Initially, they did not receive a license to compete in professional football the following season, but the decision was overturned. Roeselare got to play the Europa League play-offs.

Antwerp won 5–2 on aggregate.

Relegation play-offs The four bottom teams in the aggregate table will take part in the relegation play-offs in which they keep 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: Tubize 17 points, Cercle Brugge 17, OH Leuven 15 and Lommel United 9. The points of Cercle Brugge were rounded up, therefore in case of any ties on points at the end of the playoffs, their half point would be deducted. The team finishing in last position relegated to the 2017–18 Belgian First Amateur Division.

Despite starting with a huge deficit, Lommel United managed to close the gap between them and the other teams by obtaining 10 points out of their first four matches, overtaking Cercle Brugge and virtually being saved from relegation. At that point, neither team was saved as OH Leuven and Tubize had 20 points and Cercle Brugge and Lommel United were only one point behind. On matchday five, Lommel United first lost against Cercle Brugge and one day later on 22 April 2017, Tubize beat OH Leuven resulting in both Tubize and Cercle Brugge to be saved. On 28 April 2017, the final match, OH Leuven and Lommel United played each other in a direct confrontation to avoid relegation, with OH Leuven needing only a draw. The match ended 1–0 resulting in the relegation of Lommel United.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank Player Club Goals1 Dylan De BelderLierse212 Ivan YaganCercle Brugge133 Christophe BertjensLommel United124 Mamadou DialloTubize10 Nicolas RajselUnion SG106 Esteban CasagoldaOH Leuven8 Augusto Da SilvaUnion SG8 Aurélien JoachimLierse8 Tomislav KišCercle Brugge810 Jovan KostovskiOH Leuven7 William OwusuAntwerp7

Top assists

Rank Player Club Assists1 Manuel BensonLierse7 Kevin KisKSV Roeselare73 Serge TabekouLeuven64 Tuur DierckxAntwerp5 Ivan YaganCercle Brugge5 Simon ZenkeTubize-Braine57 Ahmed SayedLierse4 Raphaël LecomteRoeselare4 Aurélien JoachimLierse4 Thomas AzevedoLeuven4 Samy KehliRoeselare4

Number of teams by provinces Number of teams Province Team(s)2Antwerp and LierseCercle Brugge and Roeselare1 (not a province)Union SGOH LeuvenLommel UnitedTubize 0, , , and /

Attendances

# Club Average 1 Antwerp 11,556 2 Lierse 4,805 3 OHL 4,633 4 Cercle 3,285 5 Roeselare 2,368 6 Lommel 2,117 7 RUSG 2,029 8 Tubize 1,218

Source:https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/bel/avebel17.htm

Notes

References