The Belgian Eerste Klasse (Dutch) or Division 1 (French) is the name of the professional

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

league of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Competition Format

The season begins with a tournament between the six teams who don't participate at the BeNe League. The first two teams join the teams from the BeNe League and they are separated in two play-off groups while the four others teams from the opening tournament participate to the play-down.

2016/17 Season participants

The following 12 clubs compete in the Eerste Klasse during the 2016–17 season.

Eerste Klasse Champions

* 1958 : Olympic Club Flémallois * 1959 : Olympic Club Flémallois (2) * 1960 : Olympic Club Flémallois (3) * 1961 : Olympic Club Flémallois (4) * 1962 : Olympic Club Flémallois (5) * 1963 : Olympic Club Flémallois (6) * 1964 : Olympic Club Flémallois (7) * 1965 : ROC Flémalle (8) * 1966 : CH Schaerbeek Brussels * 1967 : Progrès HC Seraing * 1968 :

KV Sasja HC KV Sasja HC Hoboken is a Belgian handball team from Hoboken, Antwerp Hoboken () is a southern district of the arrondissement and city of Antwerp, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located at the Scheldt river. The name of the distri ...

* 1969 : ROC Flémalle (9) * 1970 : ROC Flémalle (10) * 1971 : HC Inter Herstal * 1972 :

SK Avanti Lebbeke Avanti Lebbeke was a 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 Belgia ...

* 1973 :

(2) * 1974 :

(2) * 1975 :

(3) * 1976 : ROC Flémalle (11) * 1977 : Progrès HC Seraing (2) * 1978 : Sporting Neerpelt * 1979 : Yellow Red KV Mechelen * 1980 : Sporting Neerpelt (2) * 1981 : Sporting Neerpelt (3) * 1982 : Sporting Neerpelt (4) * 1983 : Sporting Neerpelt (5) * 1984 :

Initia HC Hasselt Initia Hasselt is a handball club from Hasselt, Belgium. They currently compete in the Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition f ...

* 1985 :

(2) * 1986 :

(3) * 1987 : Sporting Neerpelt (6) * 1988 : Sporting Neerpelt (7) * 1989 : Sporting Neerpelt (8) * 1990 : Sporting Neerpelt (9) * 1991 : Handball Club Herstal * 1992 : Olse Merksem HC * 1993 :

(4) * 1994 :

(5) * 1995 :

(6) * 1996 :

(7) * 1997 :

(8) * 1998 :

(9) * 1999 :

(10) * 2000 : Handball Club Eynatten * 2001 : Handball Club Eynatten (2) * 2002 : Handball Club Eynatten (3) * 2003 : HC Elckerlyc Tongeren * 2004 : Sporting Neerpelt (10) * 2005 : HC Elckerlyc Tongeren (2) * 2006 :

(4) * 2007 :

(5) * 2008 :

(6) * 2009 : United HC Tongeren (3) * 2010 : United HC Tongeren (4) * 2011 :

(11) * 2012 : United HC Tongeren (5) * 2013 :

(12) * 2014 :

(13) * 2015 : United HC Tongeren (6) * 2016 :

HC Achilles Bocholt HC Achilles Bocholt is a Belgian handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their ...

* 2017 :

(2) * 2018 :

(3) * 2021 :

HC Visé BM HC Visé BM is a men's handball club from Visé, Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, ...

EHF coefficient ranking

For season 2017/2018, see footnote
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

European Handball Federation The European Handball Federation (EHF) is the umbrella organisation for European handball. Founded on 17 November 1991, it is made of 50 member federations and two associated federations (England and Scotland), and is headquartered in Vienna, ...

. *19. (''27'') Extraliga (14.67) *20. RedDownArrow

(''19'') Extraliga (11.67) *21. (''24'') Eerste Klasse (11.25) *21. (''22'')

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

(11.25) *23. (''32'') Lotto Eredivisie (10.78)

External links

www.handball.be

References

{{EHF leagues Handball leagues in Belgium

Eerste Klasse The Eerste Klasse ( en, First Class) started as the 1st tier of football in the Netherlands and is now the 6th tier. The league is divided into eleven divisions, six for Saturday clubs and five for Sunday clubs. These divisions correspond to the s ...

Professional sports leagues in Belgium