2019–20 Belgian First Division B


The 2019–20 season of the Belgian First Division B began in August 2019 and was scheduled to end in April 2020 but will eventually conclude on 2 August 2020 with the return leg of the promotion playoff.
Since mid-March all matches had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, which was just a few days before the return leg of the promotion play-offs was to be played. A few weeks later, Lokeren was declared bankrupt and ceased to exist, while both Roeselare and Virton were refused a professional football license due to financial difficulties, meaning they were both relegated and no relegation play-offs were necessary. On 15 May 2020, the general meeting of the Belgian Pro League clubs decided to end the season, with the exception of the return leg of the promotion play-offs. OH Leuven and Beerschot were forced to find a date and location for the return leg to decide promotion, before the start of the 2020–21 season on 7 August 2020. In case both teams did not come to an agreement, or the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the match to be played in time, Westerlo will be promoted instead as team which scored the most points overall. As the Belgian health safety council has prohibited sports competitions until the end of July and public events until the end of August, the match was scheduled to be played behind closed doors in the first weekend of August, just a few days before the start of the next season. Just two days before the match was scheduled to take place, the decision was overturned and instead the Belgian First Division A was expanded to 18 teams, meaning both Beerschot and OH Leuven were promoted. The final will still be played to determine the champion.

Team changes

In

While the regular season format remains unchanged, consisting of two separate round-robin tournaments, the end of season playoff system has been altered somewhat, specifically the Europa League playoffs will now be played by 16 instead of 12 teams, meaning that now the top six teams in the aggregate standings of the First Division B will take part in these playoffs, including the team which has gained promotion. Until the 2018–19 season, only the three highest finishers would enter.
As a consequence, from this season on only two teams will not enter the Europa League playoffs, namely the bottom two teams in the aggregate standings. Instead of a relegation tournament with the bottom four teams as was previously the case, now only these two teams will play the relegation playoffs, in which both teams will meet up to five times in a row, in a system similar to the one used a few seasons ago in the 2014–15 Belgian Pro League, with the team which finished 7th during the regular season starting with a three-point bonus and hosting three of the five home matches. The team with the fewest points after five matches will be relegated to the 2020–21 Belgian First Amateur Division.

Team information

Stadiums and locations

MatriculeClubCityFirst season of
current spell at
second level		Coming from2018-19 resultStadiumCapacity
13Antwerp2017–18Belgian First Amateur Division2nd Olympic Stadium12,771
282Lokeren2019–20Belgian First Division A16th Daknamstadion12,136
2554Lommel2018–19Belgian First Amateur Division7th Soevereinstadion8,000
18Leuven2016–17Belgian Pro League5th Den Dreef10,000
134Roeselare2010–11Belgian Pro League6th Schiervelde Stadion9,075
10Saint-Gilles, Brussels2015–16Belgian Third Division3rd Stade Joseph Marien5,500
200Virton2019–20Belgian First Amateur Division1st Stade Yvan Georges4,015
2024Westerlo2017–18Belgian First Division A4th Het Kuipje8,035

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes


TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPositionReplaced byDate of appointment
Roeselare JuanitoContract not prolongedEnd of 2018–19 seasonPre-season Arnar Grétarsson31 July 2019
Virton Samuel PetitCaretaker ReplacedEnd of 2018–19 seasonPre-season Dino Toppmöller31 May 2019
Lommel Tom Van ImschootBecame assistant at Genk18 June 2019Pre-season Stefán Gíslason27 June 2019
Union SG Luka ElsnerBecame manager at Amiens19 June 2019Pre-season Thomas Christiansen1 July 2019
Beerschot Stijn VrevenSacked9 October 20195th Hernán Losada9 October 2019
Lommel Stefán GíslasonReplaced17 October 20197th Peter Maes17 October 2019
Lokeren Glen De BoeckSacked17 November 2019Closing tournament: 7th
Overall: 7th		 Stijn Vreven19 November 2019
Roeselare Arnar GrétarssonSacked27 November 2019Closing tournament: 7th
Overall: 8th		 Christophe Gamel 27 November 2019
Virton Dino ToppmöllerResigned2 December 2019Closing tournament: 7th
Overall: 3rd		 Christian Bracconi4 December 2019
OH Leuven Vincent EuvrardSacked9 June 2020Promotion play-offs, lost first leg 1-0 Marc Brys16 June 2020

League table

Opening tournament

Closing tournament

Aggregate table

Promotion play-offs

The winners of the opening tournament and the closing tournament compete in a two-legged match to determine the division champion, who will be promoted to the 2020–21 Belgian First Division A. The team finishing highest in the aggregate table will host the return leg. In case a single team wins both the opening and the closing tournament, that team will be promoted automatically and no play-offs will be organized.
On 8 November 2019, OH Leuven assured itself of winning the opening tournament following an away win at Virton. As such OH Leuven was certain of playing at least the promotion play-offs at the end of the season. On 21 February, following a loss against Union SG, OH Leuven could no longer win the closing tournament, meaning that promotion play-offs will be necessary to determine the overall champion. One week later, Beerschot won the second period, becoming the opponent of OH Leuven in the promotion play-offs.
After the first leg was played, the second leg was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mid-May, the Belgian association of professional football clubs decided that the second leg should take place behind closed doors in the first weekend of August to determine the champion and promoting team, on 2 August 2020. In case the final match could not be played, Westerlo would be promoted as the team with the most points in the aggregate table. However, on 31 July 2020, just two days before the actual final match, the decision was overturned and instead the 2020–21 Belgian First Division A would be expanded to 18 teams, meaning both OH Leuven and Beerschot would be promoted. It was decided the promotional final would still be played to determine the champion of the 2019–20 Belgian First Division B.

Summary

Matches

Play-offs III

The relegation playoffs, more commonly known as playoffs 3, were scheduled to be played by the two bottom teams in the overall season standings. These two teams would play a separate competition, playing each other five times between 20 March and 26 April, with the team which finished higher during the regular season starting with three bonus points and home advantage in the first match.
On 16 February 2020, following a 0–2 loss against Virton, Lokeren could no longer avoid these playoffs. One week later, following a draw away to Roeselare, Lokeren was also sure of finishing last and thus would start with a three-point deficit. On the final matchday on 28 February 2020, Roeselare only drew away to Lommel, meaning they would have become the opponents of Lokeren in Play-offs III.
Initially, these playoffs were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but in the end, they were canceled as on 20 April 2020 Lokeren was declared bankrupt and ceased to exist. Following a merge with KSV Temse a new club was created, Lokeren-Temse, starting at the fourth level. As such, Roeselare would have been saved, but three weeks later on 11 May 2020 they were refused a professional football license, meaning they were still relegated to the 2020–21 Belgian First Amateur Division.

Season statistics

Top scorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Thomas HenryOH Leuven15
2 Kurt AbrahamsWesterlo10
2 Christian BrülsWesterlo10
4 Mathieu MaertensOH Leuven8
4 Serge TabekouUnion SG8
6 Raphael HolzhauserBeerschot7
6 Casper NielsenUnion SG7
6 Saviour GodwinRoeselare7
6 StélvioVirton7
10 Giorgi BeridzeLokeren6
10 Clément CouturierVirton6
10 Jonathan HendrickxLommel6
10 Amir NouriRoeselare6

Team of the season

Upon completion of the regular season a team of the season award was compiled, based upon the results of the team of the week results throughout the season, constructed based on nominations from managers, assistant-managers, journalists and analysts. The results were announced from 23 March 2020, with one player revealed each day.

Number of teams by provinces

OWIKI.org. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.