2013–14 Belgian Pro League

The 2013–14 season of the Belgian Pro League (also known as Jupiler Pro League for sponsorship reasons) was the 111th season of top-tier football in Belgium. It started on 27 July 2013 with the match between Club Brugge and Charleroi and finished on 18 May 2014 with Anderlecht grabbing their 33rd title due to a 3–1 at home against Lokeren.

During the regular season, Standard Liège started by winning their first nine matches, putting pressure on their main challengers Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Genk and Zulte Waregem. At the halfway point, Genk was closing in on Standard, trailing by one point, but following a series of losses they dropped several places in the standings and eventually they narrowly held on to sixth place and just made it into the title playoffs. Towards the end of the regular season, mainly Club Brugge proved to be a threat as they had narrowed the gap to Standard, closing in to only four points.

The playoffs started with Standard leading on 34 points and Club Brugge right behind them on 32. Both Anderlecht (29 points) and Zulte Waregem (27 points) were at that point considered long shots for the title, while Lokeren on 26 and Genk on 23 were considered to be out of contention. Early in the playoffs, Standard immediately beat Anderlecht and knocked them down to eight points behind, seemingly setting up a final title race between them and Club Brugge. Although Standard had been in the lead since the start of the season, they somehow starting struggling, allowing Club Brugge to overtake them in the standings and become the main title favorite with just four games to go. On 4 May 2014, Club Brugge had the chance to permanently knock Anderlecht out of the race, but somehow lost at home against 10 men, putting Standard back into the lead with Anderlecht now a close second. Standard in turn then lost against Club Brugge, putting Anderlecht into the lead with two games to go, a lead which they kept until the end, winning their 33rd title in a season in which they lost no less than 11 games.

The Europa League playoff groups were won by Oostende and Kortrijk, with Oostende overcoming Kortrijk on penalty kicks although they knew they had not been given a licence for European football. As a result, the fourth placed team in the league, Zulte Waregem, were granted access directly.

In the bottom end of the table, Mons started miserably after finishing 7th the previous season, scoring only three points out of their first 15 matches. Their better second half of the season did not help in avoiding the last place. They were thereby forced to play the relegation playoff together with Oud-Heverlee Leuven, who had been struggling to set up a series of decent results, mainly driven by their horrendous away form, drawing only three matches away from home the whole season, while losing all the others. Mons were relegated on 12 April after yet another 2–0 away to OH Leuven, while Leuven themselves faced relegation on 18 May as they could no longer win the Belgian Second Division final round. Both OH Leuven and Mons had been playing in the Belgian Pro League for three seasons.

Following the 2012–13 Belgian Pro League, Beerschot were originally relegated to the 2013–14 Belgian Second Division after losing their relegation playoff series against Cercle Brugge. However, as they went bankrupt, the team folded and would later merge with KFCO Wilrijk playing at the first provincial level (fifth level) of Belgian football to form KFCO Beerschot – Wilrijk. Beerschot is replaced by 2012–13 Belgian Second Division champions Oostende, who returned to the highest level after their relegation during the 2004–05 season.

As Cercle Brugge won the 2013 Belgian Second Division final round against Second Division teams Mouscron-Péruwelz, Westerlo and WS Woluwe, they were saved from relegation, causing Oostende to be the only newcomer in the Belgian Pro League for this season.

Anderlecht

Cercle Brugge

Club Brugge

Charleroi

Genk

Gent

Kortrijk

Standard Liège

Lierse

Lokeren

Mechelen

Mons

Oostende

OH Leuven

Zulte Waregem

W.-Beveren

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Location of the 2013–14 Belgian Pro League teams

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Lierse	Eric Van Meir	Replaced	End of 2012–13 season[5]	Pre-season	Stanley Menzo	14 May 2013[5]
Standard Liège	Mircea Rednic	Replaced	End of 2012–13 season[6]		Guy Luzon	27 May 2013[6]
Charleroi	Mario Notaro	Replaced	End of 2012–13 season[7]		Felice Mazzu	1 June 2013[7]
Club Brugge	Juan Carlos Garrido	Replaced	19 September[8]	2nd	Michel Preud'homme	19 September[9]
Mons	Enzo Scifo	Sacked	23 September[10]	16th	Čedomir Janevski	27 September[11]
Gent	Víctor Fernández	Sacked	30 September[12]	8th	Mircea Rednic	1 October[13]
Waasland-Beveren	Glen De Boeck	Sacked	29 October[14]	15th	Bob Peeters	5 November[15]
Mechelen	Harm van Veldhoven	Sacked	30 December[16]	13th	Franky Vercauteren	5 January[17]
OH Leuven	Ronny Van Geneugden	Mutual Consent	21 January[18]	15th	Herman Vermeulen	26 January[19]
Genk	Mario Been	Sacked	23 February[20]	6th	Emilio Ferrera	24 February[21]
OH Leuven	Herman Vermeulen	Replaced	25 February[22]	15th	Ivan Leko	25 February[22]
Anderlecht	John van den Brom	Sacked	9 March[23]	3rd	Besnik Hasi	10 March[23]
Gent	Mircea Rednic	Sacked	9 April[24]	EL Playoffs Group A, 4th	Peter Balette	9 April[24]

Note: The classification was made after the weekend (or midweek) of each matchday, so postponed matches were only processed at the time they were played to represent the real evolution in standings.

The points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. As a result, the teams started with the following points before the playoff: Standard 34 points, Club Brugge 32, Anderlecht 29, Zulte Waregem 27, Lokeren 26 and Genk 23. Had any ties occurred at the end of the playoffs, the half point would have been deducted if it was added. However, as all six teams received the half point bonus, this did not make a difference this season.

Below the positions per round are shown. As teams did not all start with an equal number of points, the initial pre-playoffs positions are also given.

Group A contained the teams finishing the regular season in positions 7, 9, 12 and 14. The teams that finished in positions 8, 10, 11 and 13 were placed in Group B. Oostende held Gent to a 1–1 draw on 26 April and was thereby sure of winning Group A. In Group B, the decision was made on the last matchday when Kortrijk beat Charleroi 2–1 at home on 3 May.

The winners of both play-off groups competed in a two-legged match to play the fourth-placed team of the championship playoff, called Testmatch. The winners of this Testmatch were granted entry to the second qualifying round of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League.

9 May 2014

20:30 CEST

Kortrijk	2–2	Oostende
Chevalier 30' Pavlović 40'		Jonckheere 20' Siani 47' (pen.)

Guldensporen Stadion, Kortrijk

Referee: Alexandre Boucaut

17 May 2014

20:00 CEST

Oostende	2–2 (a.e.t.)	Kortrijk
Wilmet 72' Jonckheere 90+2'		De Smet 55' (pen.) Coulibaly 90'
Penalties
Jali Siani Jonckheere Sládek Ovono Schmisser Foket Martens	7–6	De Smet Heylen De Mets Pavlović Martin Oussalah Chevalier Tomašević

Albertpark, Ostend

Referee: Serge Gumienny

Oostende won on penalties after drawing 4–4 on aggregate.

The Europa League playoff final was to be played over two legs between Oostende and fourth-place finishers Zulte Waregem, with the winner receiving the right to play in the Second qualifying round of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League. However, as Oostende did not receive a licence for European football, the match was annulled and Zulte Waregem was awarded the spot directly.

The teams finishing in the last two positions faced each other in the relegation playoff. The winner of this playoff played the second division playoff with three Belgian Second Division teams, with the winner playing at the highest level the next season. The loser faced relegation. For finishing 15th, Oud-Heverlee Leuven received the home advantage and an initial lead of 3 points over Mons. Mons was relegated on 12 April as OHL had obtained a lead of 9 points with only 2 matches left. However, Oud-Heverlee Leuven then failed to finish top of the Belgian Second Division final round group, ensuring their relegation as well.

The matches in the table below were played from left to right:

Source: Sporza.be and Sport.be^{[permanent dead link‍]} (in Dutch)

Up to and including matches played on 18 May.

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Hamdi Harbaoui	Lokeren	22
2	Michy Batshuayi	Standard Liège	21
3	Habib Habibou	Zulte Waregem	20
4	Aleksandar Mitrović	Anderlecht	16
5	Ivan Santini	Kortrijk	15
6	Thorgan Hazard	Zulte Waregem	14
7	Stijn De Smet	Kortrijk	13
	David Pollet	Anderlecht (2) & Charleroi (11)	13
9	Tom De Sutter	Club Brugge	12
	Imoh Ezekiel	Standard Liège	12
	Jelle Vossen	Genk	12

11 goals (2 players)

10 goals (3 players)

9 goals (4 players)

8 goals (5 players)

7 goals (6 players)

6 goals (10 players)

5 goals (17 players)

4 goals (15 players)

3 goals (24 players)

2 goals (39 players)

1 goal (88 players)

2 Own goals (1 player)

1 Own goal (19 players)

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Geoffrey Mujangi Bia	Standard Liège	Lierse	3–0[25]	4 August 2013
Ivan Santini	Kortrijk	Lokeren	3–3[26]	9 August 2013
Matías Suárez	Anderlecht	Charleroi	5–2[27]	25 August 2013
Michy Batshuayi	Standard Liège	Oostende	4–2[28]	15 September 2013
David Destorme	Mechelen	Oostende	3–0[29]	19 October 2013
Ivan Santini	Kortrijk	Club Brugge	4–1[30]	20 October 2013
Dalibor Veselinović	Waasland-Beveren	Mons	4–1[31]	18 January 2014
Mbaye Diagne	Lierse	Mons	5–1[32]	8 February 2014
Habib Habibou	Gent	Cercle Brugge	4–1[33]	8 March 2014
Cédric Fauré	Charleroi	Cercle Brugge	4–2[34]	12 April 2014
Habib Habibou	Gent	Waasland-Beveren	4–2[35]	19 April 2014
Mbaye Diagne	Lierse	Waasland-Beveren	4–2[36]	26 April 2014
Habib Habibou	Gent	Lierse	4–0[37]	3 May 2014