In recent weeks and months, there have been interminable discussions concerning the future shape of the Jupiler League. There are currently 16 clubs in the first division but only now – as we approach March – is it becoming remotely clear how many teams there will be next season. To understand how the clubs should play such a game of brinkmanship, one has to understand how they got into this mess. It’s looking chaotic, but how it did happen? Let’s go back to 2008, when there was concern in the Belgian league about clubs breaking away in order to negotiate TV rights individually.
To make progress, the powers that be asked Dutch consultants Hypercube to examine the league and recommend how it should evolve. They came up with a number of suggestions, with a recommendation to go with the system that is more or less the one in place today. That involves a league of 16 clubs that play each other twice in a classic set-up. The top six teams in the league then go into a pool that again play each other twice in a mini-championship. So far, so good.
Then it gets a bit messy. The six teams start that pool (“Playoffs 1”) with half of the points that they gained in the championship proper. Critics argue that this falsifies the results to-date. After the required 30 games, the winner of the Playoffs 1 is declared champion and, together with the runners–up, goes into the qualification stages of the Champions League; the third-paced club enters the Europa League.
But that’s not all. The teams that finish in positions 7th to 14th are split into two groups of four. The teams in those two groups play each other twice – this is the “Playoffs 2”. The top team in each group will then play each other (home and away) to determine the winner of the “Playoffs 2”. That team then meets the team finishing 4th in the “Playoffs 1” with the prize being entry to the Europa League. This means that a team finishing 14th could qualify for Europe.
The icing on the cake is that, during this time, the teams finishing 15th and 16th play each other five times! This is the new feature this season – the “Playoffs 3”. The team finishing 15th will have a three points start and will play three of the five-match series at home. Based on points accumulated after five games, the winner will go into – another – series of playoffs with the teams finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the second division, to determine who will enter / stay in the Jupiler League. The team losing the five games mini-series (15th and 16th) will be relegated directly to the second division.
The idea of this innovatory concept was to have more games between the big clubs – more cash from TV and gate receipts – and to keep the suspense going to the end of the season. That did not work particularly well last year and the bigger clubs were not happy when Sint Truiden, Kortrijk and Zulte Waregem qualified for the “Playoffs 1”. Standard Liege and Genk both missed qualification for the “Playoffs 1”, finishing 8th and 11th respectively in the league proper. Genk then won the “Playoffs 2” and defeated the 4th placed team in “Playoffs 1”, Sint Truiden, to qualify for the Europa League.
It’s fair to say that the players and the fans do not like the system. As for what the clubs think, well the bigger ones like a smaller division and more “big” matches. But that takes us further in this descent into chaos as the clubs have been discussing what to do for the last two months. But that’s for another time.