2011–12 Belgian Pro League

The 2011–12 season of the Belgian Pro League (also known as Jupiler Pro League for sponsorship reasons) was the 109th season of top-tier football in Belgium. It began on 29 July 2011 with the first match of the regular season and ended in May 2012 with the last matches of the playoff rounds. The defending champions were Genk, who this time ended in third position, while the competition was won by Anderlecht, who clenched the title after a 1–1 draw against Club Brugge with two games left to play in the Championship Playoff.

Teams

Team changes

During the previous season, on 23 April 2011, Charleroi were relegated as a result of a 2–2 draw at home to Eupen in the relegation playoff, making it impossible to overtake them in the standings. This ended a spell of 26 consecutive seasons of being at the top level of Belgian football, with only Anderlecht, Club Brugge and Standard Liège being present for more years.^[5] As winner of the relegation playoff, Eupen avoided direct relegation, but was still forced to play the Second Division Final Round together with second division teams Lommel United, Waasland-Beveren and Mons for the final spot in first division. However, after losing four matches in a row, Eupen was also relegated on 19 May 2011^[6] after just one season at the top level. In the final match between Mons and Waasland-Beveren, Mons eventually came out as winner of the final round and took the place of Eupen.^[7]

On 24 April 2011, just one day after the relegation of Charleroi, Oud-Heverlee Leuven was promoted after securing the title in the Second Division and as a result, the city of Leuven now has a first division team again for the first time in 61 years.^[8]

Stadia and locations

Anderlecht

Beerschot

Club Bruges

Cercle Bruges

Genk

Ghent

Kortrijk

Leuven

Standard Liège

Lierse

Lokeren

Mechelen

Mons

Sint-Truiden

Zulte-Waregem

Westerlo

Location of teams in Belgian Pro League 2011-12

Personnel and sponsoring

Club	Chairman	Current manager	Team captain	Shirt sponsor
Anderlecht !R.S.C. Anderlecht	vandenstock Roger Vanden Stock	jacobs Ariël Jacobs	biglia Lucas Biglia	BNP Paribas Fortis
Beerschot !Beerschot AC	verhaegen Jos Verhaegen	no manager at end of season	kagelmacher Gary Kagelmacher	Quick
Cercle !Cercle Brugge K.S.V.	schotte Frans Schotte	peeters Bob Peeters	cornelis Hans Cornelis	A D M B
Club !Club Brugge K.V.	verhaeghe Bart Verhaeghe	daum Christoph Daum	hoefkens Carl Hoefkens	Belfius
Genk !K.R.C. Genk	houben Herbert Houben	been Mario Been	hubert David Hubert	Euphony
Gent !K.A.A. Gent	dewitte Ivan De Witte	sollied Trond Sollied	arzo César Arzo	VDK
Kortrijk !K.V. Kortrijk	allijns Jozef Allijns	vanhaezebrouck Hein Vanhaezebrouck	pavlović Nebojša Pavlović	Digipass by VASCO
Lierse !Lierse S.K.	samy Maged Samy	janssens Chris Janssens	kawashima Eiji Kawashima	Wadi Degla
Lokeren !K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	lambrecht Roger Lambrecht	maes Peter Maes	overmeire Killian Overmeire	Q-Team VP Lambrecht
Mechelen !KV Mechelen	timmermans Johan Timmermans	brys Marc Brys	gorius Julien Gorius	Telenet
Mons !R.A.E.C. Mons	leone Dominique Leone	scifo Enzo Scifo	vanimschoot Tom Van Imschoot	Holcim
Leuven !Oud-Heverlee Leuven	callewaert Jan Callewaert	vangeneugden Ronny Van Geneugden	ruytinx Bjorn Ruytinx	Option
Sint-Truiden !K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	lammens Bart Lammens	vanderelst Franky Van der Elst	delorge Peter Delorge	Belisol
Standard !Standard Liège	duchatelet Roland Duchâtelet	riga José Riga	vandamme Jelle Van Damme	Nationale Loterij
Westerlo !K.V.C. Westerlo	wijnants Herman Wijnants	ceulemans Jan Ceulemans	delen Jef Delen	Willy Naessens
Zulte !S.V. Zulte-Waregem	naessens Willy Naessens	dury Francky Dury	dhaene Karel D'Haene	Enfinity, Petrus

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Gent	Francky Dury	Mutual Consent	17 May 2011[9]	Pre-season	Trond Sollied	7 June 2011[10]
Zulte-Waregem	Hugo Broos	Sacked	23 May 2011[11]	Pre-season	Darije Kalezić	25 May 2011[12]
Lierse	Trond Sollied	Contract Ended	End of 2010-11 season[13]	Pre-season	Chris Janssens	1 June 2011[13]
Standard Liège	Dominique D'Onofrio	Contract Ended	6 June 2011[14]	Pre-season	José Riga	28 June 2011[15]
Genk	Franky Vercauteren	Signed for Al Jazira Club	18 August 2011[16][17]	5th	Mario Been	30 August 2011[18]
Sint-Truiden	Guido Brepoels	Sacked	30 August 2011[19]	15th	Franky Van der Elst	2 September 2011[20]
Club Brugge	Adrie Koster	Sacked	30 October 2011[21]	4th	Christoph Daum	9 November 2011[22]
Zulte-Waregem	Darije Kalezić	Sacked	27 December 2011[23]	14th	Francky Dury	30 December 2011[24]
Mons	Dennis van Wijk	Mutual agreement	28 February 2012[25]	11th	Enzo Scifo	28 February 2012[26]
Beerschot	Jacky Mathijssen	Mutual agreement	26 March 2012[27]	11th	Adrie Koster	1 June 2012[28]

Regular season

League table

Source: soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) number of matches won; if teams are still tied a playoff is organised
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Positions by round

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.

Only one match has been postponed during the season:

• On matchday 18: Cercle Brugge vs. Gent of 16 December because of a rain-drenched pitch, was played two days later on 18 December.^[29]

Last updated: 21 March 2012
Source: soccerassociation.com

Results

Updated to games played on 21 March 2012.
Source: Soccerway
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship Playoff

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: Anderlecht 34 points, Club Brugge 31, Gent 28, Standard 26, Genk 23 and Kortrijk 23.

Playoff table

Updated to games played on 10 May 2012.
Source: soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) points after deduction of (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) number of wins; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) number of away goals scored; 7) number of away wins
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Positions by round

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

Source:

Results

Source:
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Europa League Playoff

Group A contains the teams finishing the regular season in positions 7, 9, 12 and 14. The teams finishing in positions 8, 10, 11 and 13 were placed in Group B.

Group A

Group B

Europa League playoff final

The winners of both playoff 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 2012–13 UEFA Europa League.

Mons v Cercle Brugge

10 May 2012 20:30 CEST

Mons	0 – 1	Cercle Brugge
		Rudy  59'

Stade Charles Tondreau, Mons

Cercle Brugge v Mons

14 May 2012 20:30 CEST

Cercle Brugge	3 – 2	Mons
Van Eenoo  54' Mertens  74' Gombami  85'		Jarju  20' De Belder  90'

Jan Breydel Stadium, Brugge

Cercle Brugge won 4–2 on aggregate.

Testmatches Europa League

Europa League playoff final winners Cercle Brugge competed with fourth placed team Gent for the final European ticket. After a 7-2 aggregate win, Gent qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League.

Cercle Brugge v Gent

17 May 2012 19:30 CEST

Cercle Brugge	1 – 5	Gent
Gombami  39'	report	Maréval  13' Coulibaly  15' El Ghanassy  49' Jørgensen  66', 82'

Jan Breydel Stadium, Brugge

Gent v Cercle Brugge

20 May 2012 14:30 CEST

Gent	2 – 1	Cercle Brugge
Mboyo  33', 76'	report	Dompig  9'

Jules Ottenstadion, Ghent

Gent won 7–2 on aggregate.

Relegation Playoff

The teams finishing in the last two positions Westerlo and Sint-Truiden, faced each other in the relegation playoff. Westerlo started with a three-point bonus and home advantage for finishing above Sint-Truiden during the regular season. Although the teams were scheduled to play each other 5 times, Westerlo forced the decision already after four matches making the last match obsolete. Thereby, Sint-Truiden was relegated and Westerlo was allowed to play the relegation playoffs with the teams from the Second Division.

Updated to games played on 21 April 2012.
Source: soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
Head-to-Head: used when head-to-head record is used to rank tied teams.

Updated to games played on 31 March 2012.
Source: soccerway.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
² Match not played as Sint-Truiden could no longer overtake Westerlo in the standings
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Source: sporza.be and Sport.be (Dutch)

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Jérémy Perbet	Mons	25
2	Jelle Vossen	Genk	21
3	Christian Benteke	Genk	16
4	Joseph Akpala	Club Brugge	15
	Dieumerci Mbokani	Anderlecht
	Jordan Remacle	OH Leuven
7	Guillaume Gillet	Anderlecht	14
	Julien Gorius	Mechelen
9	Hernán Losada	Beerschot	13
10	Benjamin De Ceulaer	Lokeren	12
	Hamdi Harbaoui	Lokeren
	Ilombe Mboyo	Gent
	Rudy	Cercle Brugge
	Matías Suárez	Anderlecht

See also

• List of Belgian football transfers summer 2011
• List of Belgian football transfers winter 2011–12

References