The 2019–20 Belgian First Division A (officially known as Jupiler Pro League) was the 117th season of top-tier football in Belgium.

On 2 April 2020, the Jupiler Pro League's board of directors agreed to propose to cancel the season early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Should this proposal be accepted, Club Brugge will be awarded the title. In the meantime UEFA has threatened to ban teams in Europe in case their respective leagues were terminated early without trying to have all remaining matches completed. The decision of whether to accept this proposal was initially meant to be decided by a vote at a meeting on 15 April 2020, but had been postponed three times.

The proposal was finally accepted by the General Assembly on 15 May 2020, confirming Club Brugge as 2019–20 First Division A champions.

Team changes As 2018–19 Belgian First Division B champions, Mechelen would have replaced relegated Lokeren. However, as part of the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal, Mechelen were found guilty of match-fixing at the end of the 2017–18 season, resulting in the club being relegated back to the First Division B and runners-up Beerschot taking the spot of Mechelen instead. Mechelen appealed the decision with the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sports, which confirmed that KV Mechelen was indeed guilty of match-fixing, but that according to the rules of the Royal Belgian Football Association, relegation is no longer a possible penalty as the match-fixing occurred more than one season ago. KV Mechelen was thus allowed to play in the Belgian First Division A, but did get banned from participating in the UEFA Europa League and the Belgian Cup for one season.

Format change While the regular season remains unchanged, the end of season play-offs have been altered somewhat, specifically the Europa League play-offs will now be played by 16 instead of 12 teams. Taking part will be the bottom ten teams together with the six top teams from the Belgian First Division B, to be divided in four groups of four teams. The four group winners will play semi-finals and a final to determine the team which will play the fourth (or fifth) placed team from the championship play-offs for the remaining ticket into the UEFA Europa League. This change allows both the team relegating from the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A and the 2019–20 Belgian First Division B champion to take part in the Europa League play-offs, allowing these teams to bridge the gap of nearly six months without any matches as used to be the case in previous seasons.

Teams Stadiums and locations

Matricule Club Location Venue Capacity 35 Anderlecht Constant Vanden Stock Stadium 21,500 1 Antwerp Bosuilstadion 12,975 12 Bruges Jan Breydel Stadium 29,042 22 Charleroi Stade du Pays de Charleroi 14,000 3 Bruges Jan Breydel Stadium 29,042 4276 Eupen Kehrwegstadion 8,363 322 Genk Luminus Arena 24,956 7 Ghent Ghelamco Arena 20,000 19 Kortrijk Guldensporen Stadion 9,399 25 Mechelen AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne 16,700 216 Mouscron Stade Le Canonnier 10,571 31 Ostend Versluys Arena 8,432 373 Sint-Truiden Stayen 14,600 16 Liège Stade Maurice Dufrasne 30,023 4068 Beveren Freethiel Stadion 8,190 5381 Waregem Regenboogstadion 12,500

Personnel and kits Club Manager Kit Manufacturer Sponsors Anderlecht Vincent Kompany (player/manager) and Franky Vercauteren Joma BNP Paribas Fortis Antwerp László Bölöni Jako Ghelamco Cercle Brugge Bernd Storck Napoleon Games Charleroi Karim Belhocine Kappa Proximus Club Brugge Philippe Clement Macron Unibet Eupen Beñat San José Nike Aspire Academy Excel Mouscron Bernd Hollerbach Uhlsport Star Casino Genk Hannes Wolf Nike Beobank Gent Jess Thorup Craft Vdk bank Kortrijk Yves Vanderhaeghe Jako AGO Jobs & HR Mechelen Wouter Vrancken Jartazi Telenet Oostende Adnan Čustović Joma DIAZ Be Sint-Truiden Miloš Kostić Umbro Golden Palace Standard Liège Michel Preud'homme New Balance VOO Waasland-Beveren Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker) Uhlsport Star Casino Zulte-Waregem Francky Dury Patrick Willy Naessens Group

Managerial changes

Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position Replaced by Date of appointment Oostende Franky Van der Elst (caretaker) Replaced End of 2018–19 season Pre-season Kåre Ingebrigtsen 6 May 2019 Mouscron Bernd Storck End of contract End of 2018–19 season Bernd Hollerbach 22 May 2019Opnieuw een Duitse coach voor Moeskroen: Bernd Hollerbach is opvolger van Bernd Storck, Het Nieuwsblad, 22 May 2019 Anderlecht Karim Belhocine (caretaker) Replaced End of 2018–19 season Simon Davies and Vincent Kompany 25 May 2019 and 19 May 2019 Club Brugge Ivan Leko End of contract End of 2018–19 season Philippe Clement 24 May 2019 Genk Philippe Clement Moved to Club Brugge End of 2018–19 season Felice Mazzù 3 June 2019 Cercle Brugge José Jeunechamps (caretaker) End of caretaker spell End of 2018–19 season Fabien Mercadal 19 June 2019 Charleroi Felice Mazzù Moved to Genk End of 2018–19 season Karim Belhocine 21 June 2019 Eupen Claude Makélélé Mutual consent 14 June 2019 Beñat San José 24 June 2019 Waasland-Beveren Adnan Čustović Sacked 26 August 2019 16th Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker) 26 August 2019 Waasland-Beveren Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker) Caretaker replaced 2 September 2019 16th Arnauld Mercier 2 September 2019 Anderlecht Simon Davies Replaced 3 October 2019 13th Jonas De Roeck (caretaker) 3 October 2019 Anderlecht Jonas De Roeck (caretaker) Replaced 7 October 2019 13th Franky Vercauteren 7 October 2019 Cercle Brugge Fabien Mercadal Sacked 7 October 2019 16th Bernd Storck 12 October 2019 Genk Felice Mazzù Sacked 12 November 2019 9th Hannes Wolf 18 November 2019 Sint-Truiden Marc Brys Sacked 25 November 2019 11th Nicky Hayen (caretaker) 25 November 2019 Oostende Kåre Ingebrigtsen Became manager at APOEL FC 28 December 2019 14th Dennis van Wijk 31 December 2019 Sint-Truiden Nicky Hayen (caretaker) Caretaker replaced 2 January 2020 11th Miloš Kostić 2 January 2020 Mouscron Bernd Hollerbach Temporarily replaced due to illness 5 February 2020 11th Philippe Saint-Jean (caretaker) 5 February 2020 Waasland-Beveren Arnauld Mercier Sacked 23 February 2020 16th Dirk Geeraerd (caretaker) 23 February 2020 Mouscron Philippe Saint-Jean (caretaker) Hollerbach recovered from illness 25 February 2020 10th Bernd Hollerbach 25 February 2020 Oostende Dennis van Wijk Sacked 2 March 2020 15th Adnan Čustović 3 March 2020

Regular season League table

Results

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank Player Club Goals1 Dieumerci Mbokani Antwerp18 Jonathan David Gent 3 Hans Vanaken Club Brugge 13 4 Kaveh Rezaei Charleroi 12 5 Lior Refaelov Antwerp 116 Roman Yaremchuk Gent10 Michel Vlap Anderlecht Igor de Camargo Mechelen 9 Gianni Bruno Zulte Waregem 9

Clean sheets

Rank Player Club Clean sheets 1 Simon MignoletClub Brugge 162 Nicolas PenneteauCharleroi12 Hendrik Van CrombruggeAnderlecht 4 Thomas KaminskiGent 95 Sammy BossutZulte Waregem8 Arnaud BodartStandard Liège 7 Ortwin De WolfEupen 68 Daniel SchmidtSint-Truiden5 Sinan BolatAntwerp 10 Gaëtan CouckeGenk 4

Top assists

Rank Player Club Assists 1 Ruud Vormer Club Brugge 14 2 Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe Gent 9 3 Jonathan David Gent 8 4 Mehdi Carcela Standard Liège 7 Danijel Milićević Eupen Junya Ito Genk 7 Facundo Colidio Sint-Truiden 6 Ali Gholizadeh Charleroi Nikola Storm Mechelen Onur Kaya Mechelen

Notes

References