The season kicked off on Sunday, July 23, with the Supercup between national champions Royal Antwerp FC and KV Mechelen, which lost the cup final to the Great Old.
A week later, the first match day in the Jupiler Pro League is scheduled, with the Brussels derby between Anderlecht and Union as the first top event. Antwerp starts the competition at their own Bosuil against Cercle Brugge and has to go to Anderlecht a week later. And Club Brugge also opens in-house, against KV Mechelen. Vice champion KRC Genk will visit newcomer RWDM on matchday one.
The first Super Sunday is scheduled for matchday 6. Then we can enjoy ourselves with Gent-Club, Union-Antwerp and Genk-Anderlecht.
The first ‘Super Sunday’ will follow on matchday 6. — © rr
All posters from matchday one at a glance:
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All important derbies at a glance. — © rr
A new season, a new format
Finally, we would like to inform you how the new season will work. We will again have 16 teams in both the Jupiler Pro League and the Challenger Pro League. In 1A, 30 match days will determine who participates in which play-offs. The top six will compete in the Champions’ Play-offs for the title and European places, while the numbers 7 to 12 in the Europe Play-offs will try to get the last European ticket. Finally, the last four do everything they can to ensure their preservation. The first in these Relegation Play-offs will remain in the Jupiler Pro League, the second will play jump-offs and the last two will be relegated to the Challenger Pro League. The points of the teams in the Champions’ and Europe Play-offs are halved, but that is not the case in the Relegation Play-offs.
The two highest ranked teams in 1B are promoted directly to the highest league, the two lowest are relegated to the first amateur series. The third to sixth in the standings still play play-off games that will determine who plays jump-offs against the number 14 from 1A.
Some important dates in the Jupiler Pro League:
•Start competition: July 28, 2023;
•Winterstop: 28 December 2023 – 18 January 2024;
•End of regular season: March 17, 2024;
•Start playoffs: March 29, 2024;
•Finale Croky Cup: 9 mei 2024;
•Einde play-offs: 26 mei 2024;
•Barrage between fourth and winner Europe Play-offs: June 2, 2024.
Program first day
Friday July 28:
20u45: Union – Anderlecht
Saturday July 29:
4 pm: Eupen – Westerlo
18u15: Charleroi – OH Leuven
20u45: RWDM – Racing Genk
Sunday July 30:
13h30: Antwerp – Bruges Club
4 pm: AA Ghent – Kortrijk
6:30 PM: Club Brugge – KV Mechelen
19u15: STVV – Standard
Curious about the full calendar? You can find it here. For the time being, the exact playing times for the first 7 playing days are fixed. On Monday 4 September – after the results of the Belgian teams in the European preliminary rounds are known – the times for matchdays 8 to 21 will be announced.
Anderlecht wants to “turn the tide”
According to Jesper Fredberg, CEO of Anderlecht, the Purple & White are already busy with next season. “It will have to be better,” said the Dane. “We have the ambition to do better than last season.”
And also on the opening day, the clash against Union, Fredberg let his light shine. “A derby is very hard on fans in every country, so of course I know what those games mean. I expect that we can turn the tide against Union this season when it comes to head-to-head confrontations”, said Fredberg ambitiously.
Antwerp sees opener against Cercle as “nice start”
Antwerp CEO Sven Jaecques followed with interest the presentation of the new calendar in the Jupiler Pro League on Thursday. With Cercle Brugge, Jaecques’ ex-club came out on the opening day. “That’s a good start,” he said. “It is nice to start against an old employer.”
An absolute top match was ruled out for the Great Old on the opening day. The Pro League protects the European playing clubs a bit in the first weeks, to help them reach the group stages in Europe. Antwerp starts as champion in the play-offs of the Champions League.
Jaecques came back to the past season, a historic season in which Antwerp conquered the double. After winning the final of the Belgian Cup against KV Mechelen, the Great Old also won the championship on the final matchday after an extremely exciting denouement. “It was actually very unexpected, both for the club and for myself,” Jaecques confessed. “It was very exciting, but it was very nice to experience. And now it’s back to business as usual at the club. We are back to work and we are back with our feet on the ground.”
The club has big ambitions for next season. “Of course we want to seize the opportunity to reach the group stage of the Champions League,” said Jaecques. “We will certainly expand our core. With Jacob Ondrejka (a right winger from the Swedish Elfsborg, ed.) and Senne Lammens (Club Brugge’s reserve goalkeeper, ed.) We already got two new guys. There’s more to come, but we also need to see who will leave. We initially want to keep the entire squad together, but there is a huge amount of interest for some guys.”
Immediately toppers Standard-Union and Anderlecht-Antwerp on matchday 2. — © rr
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2023-06-22 12:09:21
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