The 2009–10 season of the Belgian Pro League (also known as Jupiler Pro League for sponsorship reasons) was the 107th season of top-tier football in Belgium. The season began on 31 July 2009 with the first matches of the regular season, and ended in May 2010 with the last matches of the playoff round. Standard Liège were the defending champions. The competition underwent a significant overhaul for this season by reducing the number of teams and, for the first time in the history of the league, introducing a playoff system to determine the Belgian champions. On April 18, 2010, Anderlecht became champions as a result of a 1–2 victory in Bruges against one of their main rivals, Club Brugge.

Changes from 2008–09

Structural changes

The league size has been reduced from eighteen to sixteen teams. Further, the competition has been split into two stages, a conventional season and playoffs. The participating clubs will first play a conventional round-robin schedule for a total of 30 matches. After the conclusion of those matches, the team ranked 16th will be directly relegated to the Belgian Second Division, while every other team will play in a playoff round according to its league table position. The first six teams will play in the Championship playoff. Points earned during the regular season are halved with an odd number of points being rounded up. The round will be played on a round-robin schedule. The winner of this round has won the Belgian championship and will participate in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League. The runners-up will also play in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, while the third-placed team will enter the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. Finally, the fourth-placed team will have to compete in a single match (called Testmatch) against the winner of the Europa League playoff (see below) for one spot in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. The teams finishing seventh through fourteenth will play in the Europa League playoff and start with zero points. The round will be played in two groups, with teams in positions 7, 9, 12 and 14 comprising Group A, and the remaining teams comprising Group B. Each group will be played on a round-robin schedule. The winners of these groups will then compete in a two-legged series to earn the right to play against the fourth-placed team of the Championship playoff for one spot in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. The 15th-placed team will participate in the Relegation playoff, along with the teams ranked second through fifth in the Belgian Second Division. The winners of the playoff will earn a place in the 2010–11 Belgian First Division.

Team changes

Team information

Stadia and locations

Personnel and sponsoring

Managerial changes

During summer break

During the season

Regular season

Financial troubles of Mouscron

During the season, Mouscron got into financial trouble. This caused months of debate and several law procedures, with the fate of Mouscron changing from week to week. The board of Mouscron finally accepted the bankruptcy of Mouscron on 28 December 2009. At that point, the last two matches of Mouscron had already been forfeited as many players refused to play due to wages from November and December not being paid; three forfeits in a row would have also caused immediate elimination and relegation to the Belgian Third Division. As a result of the bankruptcy and relegation, Mouscron's record was expunged.

League table

Positions by round

Note: The classification was made after the weekend (or midweek) of each matchday, so postponed matches were only processed at the time they were played to represent the real evolution in standings. The postponed matches are: On top of that, the results of Mouscron were annulled between matchdays 20 and 21, causing many shifts between those matchdays. Also, for the rest of the season, there will be no point at which all teams have played the same number of matches, until at the end.

Results

Note: All Mouscron results listed below were expunged after the club had to declare bankruptcy during the season. They are listed here for information purposes. Matches which were to be competed after Mouscron's exemption have been shaded.

Championship playoff

The points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. Thus, Anderlecht started with 35 points, Club Brugge with 29, Gent with 25, Kortrijk 23 and both Sint-Truiden and Zulte-Waregem started with 21.

Playoff table

Positions by round

Results

Europa League playoff

Group A

Group B

Europa League playoff final

The winners of both playoff groups will compete in a two-legged match. The winners on aggregate will compete in another match (called Testmatch) against a team from the championship playoff (see below). If both teams are tied after two matches, the away goals rule will be applied. Should both teams still be tied afterwards, thirty minutes of extra time will be played and, if necessary, a penalty shootout will be conducted. Genk won 5–2 on aggregate.

Testmatches Europa League

The fourth-placed team from the championship playoff and the winners of the Europa League playoff competed for one spot in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. Note: The spot in the second qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League was taken by Cercle Brugge, who was the runners-up of the 2009–10 Belgian Cup to Champions League-qualified Gent. Genk won 5–3 on aggregate.

Goalscorers

The list of goalscorers is split up: first there is the list of goalscorers during the regular competition, deciding the official title of league 'topscorer', which was won by Romelu Lukaku. After this, the goalscorers in the play-offs are listed below in a second list. Because not all teams get equal matches in the playoffs, the goals during the playoffs did not count to determine the top scorer and therefore there are two separate lists.

Regular competition

Top goalscorers

Other scorers

Playoff goalscorers

Championship playoff

30 games, 83 goals ( per game)

Europa League Playoff

24 games, 73 goals ( per game) Source: sporza.be and Sport.be

Season statistics

Regular competition records beaten or equalized during playoff games are listed as such.

Scoring

Widest winning margin: 5 Goals Most goals in a match by one team: 5 Goals Most goals in one half: 5 goals Most goals in one half by a single team: 4 goals Most goals in a match by one player: 3 goals

Discipline

Source: sporza.be and Sport.be