[Football] Belgium League

[Ding Dong !]

So Belgium league cancelled and Club Bruges declared Champions.

PL next

 

[pasty]

They were technically Champions anyway. 15 points clear with only 1 game of the season remaining,

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Yep, give Liverpool the title.....and relegate villa. Sorted

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

They were technically Champions anyway. 15 points clear with only 1 game of the season remaining,

Not that simple...

Club Brugge were 15 points clear with one game remaining of the Belgian regular season, after which the top six teams would have competed in a play-off competition to determine who was crowned champion and which teams awarded European places for next season.

https://www.skysports.com/football/...-to-season-club-brugge-would-be-awarded-title

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

They were technically Champions anyway. 15 points clear with only 1 game of the season remaining,

There were still 11 games left. The Belgian League splits after 30 games with the top 6 going into a play off to crown the Champions and decide Champions and Europa League qualification.

 

[BN41Albion]

There were still 11 games left. The Belgian League splits after 30 games with the top 6 going into a play off to crown the Champions and decide Champions and Europa League qualification.

As an aside to the main point, that sounds shit!

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

It is an interesting precedent and will put further pressure on our league to accept the hard reality that this season will not complete. One way or another, they need to grasp the nettle.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

As an aside to the main point, that sounds shit!

It gets better than that.

The bottom club are automatically relegated after the 30 games.

There is a two leg play off between the teams that won each half of the second division season (no play offs if the same team wins each half) .

The teams that finish 7th - 15th in the top division are joined by the losers of the promotion play offs and the next two best teams when they combine the two 2nd Division seasons into a league table (or the teams finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the combined league table, in the event of no play off being needed).

They split into two groups of 6 and play 10 further games

The winners of each group play each other, and the winners of that game then play the team that finished 4th in the top 6 play offs for a Europa League spot.

In theory a team could finish 4th in the second division and still get a Europa League place the next season.

 

[sparkie]

The 2nd division promotion playoff is between the winners of the first half of the season table and the winners of the second half of the season table.

If the same team wins both halfs of the season, then no playoff, and they are promoted automatically.

 

[wolfie]

If the season is cancelled, does that mean that we didn't win away to Arsenal, Jahanbakhsh didn't score the goal of the season, Connolly didn't sensationally beat Spurs and GM still only has 109 goals ?

(On the other hand, we didn't lose at home to Palace either)

 

[BN41Albion]

It gets better than that.

The bottom club are automatically relegated after the 30 games.

There is a two leg play off between the teams that won each half of the second division season (no play offs if the same team wins each half) .

The teams that finish 7th - 15th in the top division are joined by the losers of the promotion play offs and the next two best teams when they combine the two 2nd Division seasons into a league table (or the teams finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the combined league table, in the event of no play off being needed).

They split into two groups of 6 and play 10 further games

The winners of each group play each other, and the winners of that game then play the team that finished 4th in the top 6 play offs for a Europa League spot.

In theory a team could finish 4th in the second division and still get a Europa League place the next season.

Bonkers

 

[BluesRockDJ]

There were still 11 games left. The Belgian League splits after 30 games with the top 6 going into a play off to crown the Champions and decide Champions and Europa League qualification.

Is that like the Jock Micky Mouse League ?

 

[Billy in Bristol]

Until you guys explained the Belgian league I was anti Brexit - now not so sure. But Percy has a MEDAL, two Albion players in two years...yay!

 

[US Seagull]

The Belgium league is just madness

 

[Brian Munich]

The Belgium league is just madness

I quite like the format. Loads of elite-level leagues in various sports have a play-off system following the regular league season to determine the overall champions. At least with the way they've done it in Belgium a team with a large points advantage gets to carry that into the play-off stage. Also it prevents the league season from fizzling out with teams metaphorically on the beach with 3-4 weeks to go.

Although, I'm hoping that Liverpool are very much on the beach when we play them in the penultimate round of fixtures.

 

[redoubtable seagull]

The play off system is being scrapped from the 26/27 season. It will expand to an 18 team league and run in a traditional format.

 

[Brian Munich]

The play off system is being scrapped from the 26/27 season. It will expand to an 18 team league and run in a traditional format.

Yeh, it said so on that vid. It also implied that the play off system was advantageous to the traditional big sides in Belgium, but I couldn’t work out how or why. Bigger squads meaning less affected by injuries at business end of the season??

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Yeh, it said so on that vid. It also implied that the play off system was advantageous to the traditional big sides in Belgium, but I couldn’t work out how or why. Bigger squads meaning less affected by injuries at business end of the season??

The idea behind the playoffs originally being introduced was that there would be more games between the top sides. Therefore they’d gain more from an increase in competitive games than playing teams further down the table.

The ultimate aim was to improve Belgium’s UEFA co-efficient. They were ranked 14th when the play offs started, they are now ranked 9th (last time I checked) so it appears to have been a success.

Now with the expanded European competitions they don’t want a 40 game season plus cup and European games for their top teams so gave decided to get rid of the playoffs, increase the league to 18 sides and have a 34 game regular season.