The 2003–04 season of the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

was held between 8 August 2003 and 15 May 2004. Sporting Anderlecht became champions on 24 April 2004.

Promoted teams

These teams were promoted from the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

at the start of the season: *

Cercle Brugge K.S.V. Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. Cercle have played in the Belgian Pro League since the 2003–04 season, having previously spent several years in the Belgian Second Divisi ...

(second division champions) * K. Heusden-Zolder (playoff winner)

Relegated teams

These teams were relegated to the second division at the end of the season: * K. Heusden-Zolder * R. Antwerp F.C.

Anderlecht's title success

The battle for the title was not great as Anderlecht had a big lead over their opponents (mainly Club Brugge). However, a bad finish from Anderlecht kept the suspense until the 31st matchday when Club Brugge drew with

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropol ...

while the team from Brussels also drew (1-1) at

Herman Vanderpoortenstadion Herman Vanderpoortenstadion () (also called Het Lisp []) is a multi-use stadium in Lier, Belgium, Lier, Belgium. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and was the home ground of Lierse S.K., Lierse between 1925 and 2 ...

, the homeground of Lierse.

Battle for Europe

The next week, Club Brugge was sure to enter the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Preliminary Round with a 1-0 win against

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

, then lying third. In spite of this defeat, Standard managed to qualify for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

as they were 6 points ahead of Mouscron after the 32nd matchday. The suspense was killed after a 1-1 draw against Charleroi the next Saturday.

The relegation dog fight

The end of the league was thus centered on the battle against relegation. Four teams were concerned : R.A.E.C. Mons and Charleroi, which finally saved themselves, R. Antwerp F.C. and

K. Beringen-Heusden-Zolder K. Beringen-Heusden-Zolder was a Belgian football club, from the municipalities of Heusden-Zolder and Beringen in Limburg. Its stadium has been located in the municipality of Beringen-Mijn from 2004 to 2006 (after its relegation from the Belgi ...

finishing respectively 6 and 5 points adrift.

Final league table

Results

Top goal scorers

References

Sport.be website
- Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:2003-04 Belgian First Division Belgian First Division A seasons

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...