Belgian First Division B in a nutshell

The second-highest football competition in Belgium is down to an end with two remaining match days ahead. Let’s grasp some basic understanding about the Belgian First Division B and keep yourself updated with the latest standings of its participants.

What is the Belgian First Division B?

The Belgian Division B, also known as Proximus League, is the second tier in the Belgian football pyramid, after the Belgian First Division A. It is a new competition that has just existed for five years since its inception in 2016. The Belgian First Division B is also governed by the Royal Belgian Football Association. 

Belgian First Division B logo

The origin of the Belgian First Division B

The Belgian First Division B was established in 2016 to replace the Belgian Second Division, which was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1909. 

How does the Belgian First Division B work?

Despite the short existing time, the Belgian First Division B’s format has been divided into two phases: from its beginning to 2020, and from 2020 to the present.

Prior to 2020

There were only eight teams participating in the tournament, which was separated into two small competitions, commonly known as the opening and closing tournaments. Each of eight teams will compete with the other twice, as the regular double round-robin format. The winning teams of two competitions will face each other in a two-legged tie to determine the final winner for the Belgian First Division B title.

The winner was then promoted to the higher division: the Belgian First Division A. Meanwhile, the top three teams (except for the eventual champion) met the seventh to 15th-ranked teams from the Belgian First Division A in a play-off series. They competed against each other to qualify for the UEFA Europa League. The rest four teams participated in relegation playoffs to find out the worst team that would be relegated to the Belgian First Amateur Division. 

In the 2019 season, instead of dividing the remaining seven teams (without the top winner) into three teams (for Europa League playoff) and four teams (for relegation playoff), the top six teams (including the champion) took part in the Europa League playoff matches while the bottom two teams joined the relegation counterparts.

From 2020

Since the 2020 season, there are no separated opening and closing competitions in the Belgian First Division B. All eight teams participated in a double round-robin tournament, in which each team played every other in four matches.

The team that ended up with the highest point would be the triumph and promoted to the higher league while the bottom team was sent to the Belgian First Amateur Division. The second-ranked team played a two-legged promotion playoff with the team that finished the Belgian First Division A at the 15th position.

Winning records statistics

There are some notable events that happened during the Belgian First Division B. Accordingly, in the 2019-20 season, although Beerschot was the winner of the promotion play-off match, both they and their opponent OH Leuven were promoted to the First Division A as it was expanded to 18 teams this season.

The playoffs qualification for Europa League in the 2019-20 season was not held due to the Coronavirus pandemic and both Roeselare and Virton were sent to the lower division because they were refused a professional football license in this period of time. The reason was they couldn’t ensure the financial issue for their teams and therefore could not resolve the financial solvency.  

2021 Belgian First Division B table

Union Saint-Gilloise FC

Reference sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_First_Division_B

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Second_Division