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The 2022–23 Belgian Pro League (officially known as the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 120th season of top-tier football in
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
. Royal Antwerp were crowned league champions for the first time in 66 years after pipping
Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...
and Union St-Gilloise on the final day, the first occasion since 1999 that three clubs were still contending the title going in the final match. All three Championship chasers were in the virtual lead in the table at different stages across the final five minutes before
Toby Alderweireld Tobias Albertine Maurits Alderweireld (; born 2 March 1989) is a Belgian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football)#Full-back, centre-back. Alderweireld began his professional career at D ...
's title-clinching goal. Genk's title-challenge was helped by a record-breaking 24 assists from
Mike Trésor Mike Trésor Ndayishimiye (born 28 May 1999), commonly known as Mike Tresor, is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or left winger for club Burnley. The 2022–23 Belgian Pro League Footballer of the Year, Tr ...
while Hugo Cuypers of Gent became the first Belgian winner of the Golden Bull for top scorer since
Romelu Lukaku Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (; born 13 May 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club SSC Napoli, Napoli and the Belgium national football team, Belgium national team. Lukaku began h ...
in 2009–10. Zulte Waregem, pipped for the title on the final day ten years earlier and subsequent Cup winners in 2017, were one of three sides relegated.


Format change

At the end of the
2019–20 Belgian First Division A The 2019–20 Belgian First Division A (officially known as Jupiler Pro League) was the 117th season of top-tier football in Belgium. On 2 April 2020, the Jupiler Pro League's board of directors agreed to propose to cancel the season early durin ...
, it was decided to exceptionally cancel any relegations as a result of the league being stopped early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused the league to temporarily expand to 18 as promotions from a lower league did occur as originally planned. It was decided at that point that the goal was to eventually return to 16 teams, and at the end of the
2021–22 Belgian First Division A The 2021–22 Belgian Pro League (officially known as Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 119th season of top-flight football in Belgium. Club Brugge completed their first league Championship hat-trick since the 1970s by edgin ...
, the clubs agreed that the 2022–23 season will reduce the number of clubs at the highest level again to 16, as this season only three teams will face direct relegation instead of just one. Furthermore, a new format was also decided from 2023–24 onwards (with 16 teams), returning to a slightly altered version of the playoff structure used prior to the 2019–20 season, but most importantly also increasing the teams relegating each season from 1 to 2 direct plus an additional optional third team through a playoff. A minor change was the renaming of the top two leagues, with the First Division A and First Division B now renamed Jupiler Pro League and Challenger Pro League respectively.


Teams

Eighteen teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and
2021–22 Belgian First Division B The 2021–22 season of the Belgian First Division B began in August 2021 and ended in April 2022, with Westerlo winning the title by a considerable margin over RWDM, the latter losing the promotion play-off and hence not promoted together with We ...
champions
Westerlo Westerlo () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises seven towns: * Westerlo centrum * * Tongerlo * Heultje * Voortkapel * Oosterwijk * In 2021, Westerlo had a total population of 25,288. Th ...
who returned after spending five seasons at the second tier following their relegation at the end of the 2016–17 season. They replaced
Beerschot Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbalclub Antwerpen (), or simply Beerschot, is a Belgian professional football club located in Antwerp, that competes in the top tier Pro League after promotion from second tier in 2023–24 season. In 2013, KFCO Wil ...
who had finished last by a very large margin and were relegated after two seasons at the highest level. No other changes happened as
Seraing Seraing (; ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city of Wallonia located in the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boncelles, Jemeppe-sur-M ...
(who finished 17th) won the
Relegation play-off Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...
against RWDM, and thus stayed in the top division.


Relegations

With three clubs being relegated, there was a major turnover in coaches with most clubs changing coach during the season. Out of the 18 Pro League sides, only seven kept the same coach from the opening day to the last.
Seraing Seraing (; ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city of Wallonia located in the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boncelles, Jemeppe-sur-M ...
became the first club to be relegated, following a 2–0 away loss to
Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...
on 7 April 2023. One week later, on 15 April 2023, Oostende also dropped as they went down 0–4 at home to
OH Leuven Oh, OH, or Oh! is an interjection, often proclaiming surprise (emotion), surprise. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Albums * Oh! (Girls' Generation album), ''Oh!'' (Girls' Generation album), 2010 * Oh! (ScoLoHoFo album), ''Oh!'' (S ...
. Yet another week later, on the final matchday of the regular season, Zulte Waregem became the third and final team relegated following a 2–3 home loss to
Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. They compete in the Belgian Pro League, the top flight of Belgian football. Their matricule number is 12. The club plays home games at the 29 ...
.


Stadiums and locations


Number of teams by provinces


Personnel and kits


Managerial changes


Regular season


League table


Results


Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after the completion of each round.


Play-offs


Play-off I

Points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up in the event of half-points) before the start of the playoff. Genk and Union SG, therefore, started on 38 points, Antwerp on 36, and Club Brugge on 30. Only Antwerp did not see their points rounded up, hence in case of ties they were always ranked above the other teams. Any other ties were broken by regular season finishing order (Genk, then Union SG, then Club Brugge).


Play-off II

Points obtained during the regular season will be halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. Gent and Standard started on 28 points, Westerlo on 26, and Cercle Brugge on 25. As the points of Standard and Westerlo were rounded up, in case of ties they would always be ranked below the team (or teams) they are tied with. The deciding factor after that would be finishing position in the regular season.


Season statistics

Prizes awarded cover all 40 rounds of the season, i.e. the 34 rounds of regular season football plus the six weeks of Champions Play-Offs and Europe Play-Offs.


Top goalscorers


Clean sheets


Top assists

* Trésor's tally of 24 was a new single-season Pro League assists record.


Hat-tricks

*4 Player scored four goals.


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belgian First Division A 2022-23 2022-23 2022–23 in European association football leagues 1