The Belgian Pro League is the weirdest league in football. 

when your own fans of the league complain about its complication, you know your league is complicated

As a Belgian, this goes perfectly in line with how the rest of Belgium is organised. Make it as complicated as possible so the common folk wont know what's really going on, whilst politicians and industry reap the rewards.

As a Belgian myself I don’t like the play off system but let me tell you those final days are always so exiting

As an USG fan, I can confirm we keep bottling the league every year. 2 years ago by finishing 1st in the normal phase and then second after playoffs, then last year being 1st 10 minutes before the end of the league but ending up 3rd, and now this year once again being 1st in the normal phase and 2nd after playoffs ... Next year will be the year (maybe) (hopefully) (nah we will bottle it once again)

Important to know. Club Brugge is one of the only teams (directors and fans) who were against this rules from the beginning. The president repeated this after the title. He hoped that other teams would finally be convinced now.

omg the pronunciation i'm crying 😂😂

8:18 the match ended 0-1 for Gent. Which means that Gent is placed for the 2nd qualifier round of the Conference league.

Union coming from the 2nd division and finishing 1st, tied 1st and 1st again and then chocking the play-offs 3 times is heartbreak man.

In Romania is almost the same format. 16 teams, 30 games championship format. The difference is that we have two groups in the second part of the season: PLAYOFF (6 teams)and PLAYOUT (10 teams) with the points also being cut in halt... And the weirdest part is European leagues qualification rules... The winner of playoff (which is considered the championship winner) Goes only in the first qualification round of UCL; The runner-up goes in the qualification round for Conference league (not even UEL) and 3rd team in championship play a Conference League playoff with the 3rd team in relegation round. Also the winner and the runner-up of Relegation round goes in the Conference League qualifications. And the cup winner goes to Europa League qualifications (Which, in this season, was a second division team who doesn't have promotion rights because is own by a public organization and not a private one...) And with all this...last season, we didn't have any team in european competitions💀 Maybe I am a bit wrong 'cause I am not 100% sure if is exactly how I said, but is something like this... (Now is weirder with the new UCL format) I wish that in one day we will have 18 or 20 teams in the 1st division and the normal home/away format

Format is more than 10 years old...loved it every season. Exciting every time. All of us know the rules at the start of the season...so nothing unfair there

The only thing I understood was that, you gotta win every match....

It is actually less insane than it used to be. Until a couple of years ago the 2nd division teams were also included in what is now the ECL group. Speaking of the second division: In 2020 this league was played in two separate halfs, similar to Mexiko, the winners of each half would play out the team to be promoted in a two legged tie. Unfortunately all professional sport was suspended in Belgium due to Covid before the second leg could be played, the end of this ban was scheduled for only a few days before the next season was supposed to begin. So the plan was to cram the second leg in that short period and I think that is what did happen but in case the game could not be played they came up with a plan B: The team that did best over both periods would have been promoted in this case. What makes this so weird is that that was team, which was very consistent over the whole season but failed to win either period, so that team wasn’t even in the play-off match and originally had no chance to get promoted at all. I don’t think it works like that anymore and I got it from foreign sports media at the time, so if there are any inaccuracies feel free to correct me

that was certainly a lot to take in, honestly the only thing I have problem with is completely changing the tiebreaker rules in the playoffs that is just unnecessary complication.

You're roasting the format, but it has given us the best final game days each year.

I might be minority here but I personally freaking loved this unqiue format. I would make a couple of changes here n there but overall, the idea behind it is amazing 👏

The league format has given us some of the most mental/dramatic final league days you would normally only see in movies. The tagline is 'unscripted drama' for a reason. I honestly like it a lot better than the boring leagues where a team (usually the same team) clinches the title with still a handful of games to play. But many people seem to think it's unfair to cut the points in half. The critics are probably going to get their way and the league is now considering to do away with the halving of the points for the play-offs. I predict that in a few years many of those critics will think back of the good ol' days of current league system.

It was introduced to improve the quality of the Belgian football: the top teams would play eachother more in this format. And it works, the quality has improved and as a spectator you get to see more interesting games. The biggest debate is about cutting the points in half. Even as a neutral spectator I feel bad for Union Saint-Giiloise. If feels unjust. But there's nothing wrong or weird about the format.

The Belgian competition is very exciting and fun to follow. Union was my favorite from the start, even in the European league. Many strong teams and exciting competition. In recent years it has remained exciting until the last match, what more could you want as a football fan. Yesterday KRC Genk (No. 6 in the Jupiler Pro League championship play-offs) played against KAA Gent (No. 1 in the Jupiler Pro League conference League play-offs) for the last European ticket. There is a lot of talent in Belgium. ☺👍

It is the league with the most suspense and tension tho, till the very last game

Honestly, I adore the Belgian playoff system, I believe it strikes the perfect balance between a straight traditional league format and the MLS cup style playoff system. I watched that Aldeweireld title winning goal live last year, it was absolute insanity and what made me such a big believer in this format. People don’t like the halving of points, I get it because it’s not what people are used to, but the whole point is that playoff games are supposed to tangibly matter more than regular season games, and to me it’s incredible. Traditional leagues are cool, so is the MLS Cup, but I think this is actually the best system that could be made to strike a middle ground balance providing benefit to the best regular season performers. Also USG are becoming legendary bottlejobs 😭😭 3 straight years bottling the title

as a belgian, a lot of people like the system because it gives another exciting few matches where every match is a final for every team... it gives more excitement for the fans and the thing is if you had a bad start of the season you can still have a chance, if you win the league (the first 30 matches) you still have to prove to yourself that you can beat the best of the league week in week out because thats what you have to do in the champions league next season if you win anyway

A lot of people find the halving unjust and I understand their point of view however when we take the overall level of the league into consideration it makes sense. 1/ During these playoffs, the teams will have to get points against the best teams of the league which will make the teams good against stronger opposition emerge. 2/ It will bring pressure to the teams on top. When you consider the European competition, the teams representing Belgium will need to play against strong teams rather than low block defensive ones and they will need to resist the pression of direct elimination matches. I don't know if it was the initial purpose but it can make the clubs better on the European scene.

Great video!! The Austrian Bundesliga is absolute madness as well haha

As a Belgian and an USG fan , I'm fed up with this format... It's so sad each and every year being literally first and BY FAR as well getting fkd every year is so unfair.

I feel like a lot of these headaches could have been avoided if they had just gone "During the final bits of the season, wins are 6 points and ties are 2." That would also display the intent better. "We would like the final bits of the season to still be competitive even if number 1 ran away with the season."

Club Brugge is, as one of the only teams, strongly against this format since day 1. And still are after winning the title. People complaining that we took advantage of it this year are crying about it. We did that for the last 14 years. Only that makes it 10x better. 💙🖤

Its to increase the amount of competitive games. Through this format the stronger teams face each other 4 times instead of the usual 2 times. It was done in the hope of elevating the gameplay and make us more competitive in europe despite having less money. Given our coefficiency last couple of years has been on the rise. I would say it worked.

The Football Manager D. Trap... fun af nation to do a "build a nation"

7:55 you may not realize it, but these images are pretty spot on for the actual city Antwerp. also, to expand: Gent won the game against Genk, so are now into European football (10 years in a row!) the Belgian FA has had several meetings since you posted this video, to change the format . proposals include dropping the halved points or going back to making common sense (dropping playoffs alltogether), but no one could agree, so they're sticking to this. and to answer one question: they decided to halve the points, out of fear that one club might get into the play-offs with a substantial lead that would see the title decided before they play-off was halfway done.

As a Belgian,there is already a new format suggested 😂😂😂

If you think this is crazy then you should do a coverage of the US sports format. There's an insane amount of games during the regular season and it's just to determine who gets a spot in the play-offs and who gets home advantage. Other than that, it all starts at 0-0. Aside of that, there's no promotion or relegation. How insane is that???

Just opened youtube and saw you uploaded. It's a good day.

As a Belgian Standard Liège fan,I am more worried that we might fold this season but still a great vid

I’m from Belgium and I think it’s an amazing system. It just gives other teams a chance to make that last titlerun and it gives us fans a lot of entertainment.

Here after Gent won that play off game against Genk en got european football next season

8:15 hey hey hey not everyone, they lost both matches against OHL #MassiveClub

I like it! Do or die each year, incredible suspense. You need to be on top of your game in the playoffs or you are DONE.

European tickets in general are kinda wild in Belgium. There are 5 teams that get to play European football in total. 1) The winner of the cup is guaranteed European Football 2) The winner of the regular league (first 30 games before playoffs) is also guaranteed European Football 3) The champion after playoffs is guaranteed European football 4) The second place after playoffs is guaranteed European football If any team manages to get multiple of these European tickets (like USG who won the cup, finished first in the regular season and finished second after playoffs, securing 3 tickets total) then the lowest value European tickets will trickle down to the other teams in playoff 1 in order that they finished. 5) the winner of the last ticket for European football will be decided in a game between the winner of playoff 2 and the highest placed team from playoff 1 that hasn't secured a ticket in other ways yet (in this case that was 5th place Genk after 3rd and 4th place got the 'extra' tickets that USG managed to acquire). If you lose the cup then its tough luck, in the past you used to be able to get European football if the winner got a better ticket in the competition but under the current system its all or nothing in the cup final.

Does USG still get something as the normal season champions like Canada where the Supporters’ Shield is awarded to the team in 1st place after the normal season ended and before the playoffs begin?

Please look up how to say team names

The play-offs were introduced in the Netherlands in 2005, Through play-offs, numbers 2 to 5 played for a ticket in the preliminary round of the Champions League, numbers 6 to 9 for a ticket in the UEFA Cup and numbers 10 to 13 for a place in the Intertoto Cup. This changed. Number one goes to the Champions League. The qnumber two get a ticket for the preliminary round of the Champions League. The number three get a ticket for the Europa League. The winner of the national cup also receives a ticket for the Europa League. Only the numbers four to seven play in a knockout system for a ticket in the European Conference League. The last team is relegated and two clubs at the bottom of the league play a play-off against two clubs from the second division.

Feels like a video for people who don't normally watch football

HES NOT WRONG THO🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

There is some logic behind the halving of the points... in the Champions' Play-Offs (PO 1) you play against your direct rivals, against the 5 other best teams in the league making these games worth double then the regular season makes sense... (If you look at it you get only 1,5pts for a win in the regular season and 3 in the play-offs) Ofcourse this rule was implemented solely for the drama and closer competition (more TV money) but I like the system actually...

I like the format a lot its sop exciting!You have no idea

I'm a Belgian watching the Premier League and I've almost lost my mind watching your explanations. Thanks 😂

with this format the best clubs play a last time against eachaother, so you have a lot of fun matches at the end of the season. It also makes the league so much more exciting. You will never have situation like leverkusen in Germany, where they are champions while they still need to play a lot of matches.

I believe it was implemented to have the top teams play against each other more often, which would strengthen them and the make them be more competitive in Europe. When the Dutch clubs were doing really bad in Europe last decade and the Belgian clubs were doing better, there were discussions of implementing this system in the Dutch league. Fortunately they didn't. Another serious option, which actually came relatively close to being realised, was combining the Dutch and Belgian leagues. However, the last couple of years the Dutch teams, and coefficient, have completely overtaken the Belgian ones.

I’m from Belgium and everyone here hates it so much. It’s so unfair

But you have to know that Club Bruges, this years champions has been against this ridiculous system for years now and wants to get rid of it but all the other top teams refuse to, so that we are now taking advantage of it in such a way is actually quite sweet 😄

godverdomme don't get me started.

I like the idea of the best teams playing in a sub group at the end of the season. But cutting the points in half is just stupid.

You forgot the reason for changing the regual League. In the past the managers from some teams played their weaker team in Europe (Champions league and Europa League) so they would have their most important players rested and ready for competition games. This let to Belgium teams losing a lot more to team that where weaker on paper. And losing coefficient ranking. Getting first place in Champions League was almost completely gone. So they decided the highlight of the season should be in the end of the season.

Belgian here, if you want to have fun you can also check how is the country political system, almost no Belgian understands it

There is only one thing worse than halving the points going into Play Offs and that is retaining the points when going into Play Offs. Of course, that option now is on the table of our pro league.

i think i suffered three strokes during this video and i did not understand shit. good video though 10/10

i started an online FM24 save (Myself as Anderlecht, others as Cub Brugge and Antwerp) and honestly its so fun. Most fun league I have EVER done.

I hate this play off system. The last 3 season, the team that would have been ahead without the halving of points, wasn't actually crowned champion

Belgium gonna Belgium. The whole point of the exercise is to (1) make the title race more exciting; (2) have more big games for TV; (3) ensure Club Brugge and Anderlecht can win the title. USG have been robbed for a few seasons. I will admit the finishes have been wild, though.

These rules are fun. My favorite FM save by far was in the Belgian leagues.

As a Belgian I can tell you: Yeah, everybody hates the system. The only ones really wanting to keep the system in place are the organizers and clubs who have seen massive profits from this system. Because obviously more people pay attention to the matches in the highest tier cutoff group and these matches obviously have the most money/ads involved. This whereas the lower you go in the first class division ranking, the less money is left on the table - A lot of lower ranked teams have to fight for table scraps on that end. One detail: 8:51: That is never going to happen. There was a LOT of riot police present at the city derby of Club vs Cercle - specifically because while Club Brugge usually wins these derbies, Cercle won the last city derby - much to the chagrin of the MANY hooligans of Club Brugge. So everybody was walking on egg shells on that final match day. If Cercle would've won, Club would've missed out on the title... and there would've been riots in Bruges...

Unlike most Belgians, and despite being an Anderlecht fan, I'm still mostly in favor of the league format. It actually makes sense when you consider the reasons behind it: playoffs were added to ensure tension until the last day of the season and to have more matches between the top teams. Not only would these generate more ticket sales, they would also gain more experience against tougher opposition and in the long term benefit from that in the European leagues. Where in a distant past the league was dominated by 2,3 teams, there is now objectively more competition at the top. And Belgian teams are doing pretty well in Europe lately, over the last 2 seasons with only 5 representatives they scored the most points after the big 4 and nearly tied with France, moving up to 8th place in the ranking and quickly catching up to Portugal and Netherlands. Can't be proven, but for me that's a long term consequence of the league format. The halving of the points is the most controversial, but if full points were kept then teams in 5th and 6th position could already have nothing to win when the playoff starts. Everyone knows the rules in advance, it means the regular season you just need to stay close enough to the top, and then in the playoffs you really need to shine. That is exactly what Brugge did, obviously helped by Union suddenly failing under pressure and Anderlecht having some injuries and not getting enough points in their away games. And the tie breakers are compensating a bit for the devaluation of the regular season.

Club Brugge is one of the only big clubs that is against the splitting of the points since day one. This is the second time we took advantage of the system and it seems they will (finally) change the format in 2025/2026. Ok, we had great suspension the last couple of seasons, but that system isn’t fair.

The argentinians used to have(or maybe still) the weirdest relegation system ever,you might wanna check that if you want some "football oddities" As for the belgian league,ima have to rewatch this many times,still confused here lol

You be happy to know they decided to change it again, there will be 16 teams same as before and playoffs with 4 teams without halving the points. Not next season but the season after it will start

Finely someone said something about it I’m a fan of last season champions rafc

This should be a Jon Bois video

Romanian football league also uses the same system of play-off and relegation league that is split after the points are cut in half.

Can you cover the A-league next?😅

I am a belgian and am a fan of the system. The points cut in half is kinds weird tbh. But imagen a scenario were the premier league was decided between the big six because they have to play againt eachother. That would be dope. Also the relegation is much more interesting because the worst teams need to play eachother. Basiclly everyone fights againts a team of the same strenght to decide the future of their club.

Nice video 👍

As a belgian football fan. The league is fucked. The playoff system is so useless. Just play the regular season and be done with it. Note the playoff system gave my team (Gent) european football next season eventhough we finished 7th but still i'd rather be 7th and no play off system than playoffs and 7th place can go to europe.

Nice Duncan shirt! :) He's leaving Fiorentina soon tho :(

It's not too dissimilar to many other leagues around Europe. Tie breaker rules aren't that complex, although rounding the points is a bit useless if you're then going to remove the extra half point to determine tie breakers (the only reason to do this is to have the table look nice and not display any half points even if in effect they do exist). Sorting by wins instead of goal difference or head to head is unusual but not complicated. Even offering a qualifying spot to teams in a lower group after the split is not unusual, even if IMO very unfair. At least the group competing for it is the ECL group in Belgium, whereas many other leagues still offer this spot to a club in the relegation group ahead of the teams finishing bottom of the championship group

* Yes, rounding the points and then having it be the first tie breaker is incredibly stupid. They do it to make the standings tables look nice and so they can pretend it's a normal league, but then every single year we need to go look up who exactly had half a point added to their total and it's incredibly confusing. Just show the decimal points! @%#@$% Ugh. Funnily enough, it's actually Club Brugge (who profited massively this year) who's most vocally against halving the points for the play-offs. Genk en Gent are the most in favour because they think it makes it easier for them to win a championship on a fluke. * The reason for the first tie breaker being the standings after the regular season is because people feel that if you have half your lead taken away it would be incredibly unfair if you were then beaten on some other tie breaker. This makes sense and literally everybody was in favour of this change. * The #22 who was offside in the last game not only did touch the ball, he was literally the guy who scored the goal. * Genk en Gent had their game for the last European ticket today and Gent did win, lol.

In the Czech Republic we have a similar format, but the points are not halved. Some people like it but I’d say more than half don’t

This System is harder. You end up playing against the Top 6 teams to win the championship. The bad teams are seperated from the table

You can say its complicated but 2 years in a row that 3 teams can win it is enough to say it makes it exiting

Club Broezj, union saint zjaliewa, zjenk, zjent. i discovered some new teams...

I'm not a fan of this system but to be fair ; since it came into play we had our biggest successes in Champions, Europa & Conference league

Best thing of all, despite winning the title multiple times in part thanks to this format; Club Brugge has always been rooting AGAINST the playoffs and the halving of the points. Goes to show that even if it benefits you, you can still acknowledge that the system is broken.

So sometimes at night, when I want to fall asleep to the TV on the couch, I throw on ESPN+ and put on an archived match....if I do the Belgian league, 100% of every match I've watched was always bat shit insane. Like, penalty in the first 10 minutes, red card in the 15th, both sides score within the next ten minutes, etc. etc. etc....I've probably seen maybe two dozen Belgian league matches and every single one was complete anarchy.

I'm Belgian and I like the points being halved _on paper_ but it's clearly unfair for the teams that did well in the regular season. Just do a 8-way bracket if you really need playoffs.

If I'm right, up until couple years ago there were a second division teams joining playoffs and had a chance to go to European competitions through league 😂 I remember my friend and I spent good 3-4 hours and full notebook on trying to realise how the system works

Play offs made Belgium teams stronger.

Even as a fan of Club Brugge, I want to see the system gone. They were 19 points behind after the regular season.

To add a bit of context: sports economists were arguing for decades that the top Belgian tier needed to be trimmed to 14 teams, for financial viability. The Play-Off system was introduced as a compromise (with 16 teams as well), where the promise of more top tier games in the PO would increase TV money, which was then to be redistributed among the lower tier teams to get them on board. That's the baseline. From the get-go, the halving of points was controversial, after which each season this was watered down a bit with all the confusing rules the last half of your video covers. All in all, the PO arguably succeeded in its goals: financial stability has increased (compared to the nineties, not arguing all is solved), TV money has increased with each contract, and the Belgian league has become more competitive in Europe. The latter is not just due to the Play-Offs to be clear, Belgian youth development has improved significantly, and sleeping giants like Antwerp or Union St Gilles coming back played a big role too. Personally, I remember when the last matchdays of the old 18 team league were rife with pointless games, where neither team had anything to win or lose, which creates its own issues apart from being boring. Again personally, I fail to grasp how the halving of points is unfair in any way. In basketball and other team sports you gain home advantage and a good roster position after the league phase, then it's all or nothing. But nobody finds that unfair, or claims that whomever ends victorious didn't deserve the title - even if they didn't finish top of the league at first. Football has another culture, but that's got nothing to do with fairness and more with tradition.

now a insider this season it was only club Brugge that didn't want the half points USG, Anderlecht all wanted the halfing of the points until they both lost the title again and now they crying again

The halving is scraped starting from next season. Emagine at the end of the bpl a new tournement with only the top 6 its amazing and adres an extra edge to the title. No way a dominence like city’s would be possible!

I'm from Belgium and I don’t understand our competition system. But you better had shown pictures of the 22/23 season. Because my club won both the title and cup.

The playoffs are some weird format but they can make the title fight so damn exciting. Just so u know, there is already an offer to change the format without the lowering of the points

To be completely fair, club Bruges board was against those rules from the beginning, you could easily assume we’re favorable to the playoffs because we won 2 titles in the last 3 years but no, every year our president has made a statement about the unfairness of cutting points in half and about competitiveness during the period you’re supposed to battle for European cups. They’re (all 30 professional clubs) discussing rn about deleting the points division but I wouldn’t be too happy about that, it wouldn’t surprise me if they create another weird format lol… they published a first proposal and unsurprisingly, it’s weird: title playoffs are normal, top4 battling without points division, UECL playoffs in a NBA playoffs format (bracket) and the two worst teams of the regular phase are just relegated without playoffs. And one last thing, it’s wrong to assume one team or another would have got this or this without the playoffs, clubs are aware about playoffs before the season starts so they are doing a preseason based on that, and it’s not because you’ve got 19 pts ahead of everyone that you would have been champion without playoffs. Big teams react to it differently because they feel they will get a spot in title playoffs anyways and that every game in the regular phase is worth 1.5 pts so it’s not a biggie if you’re 10 pts behind.

Genk - Gent just ended, Gent will play in Europe because they won 0-1

Luckily they proposed a new format for the 25-26 season, where everyone in the championship playoff has a chance to play european and the 50 percent rule is gone. Coming from a happy anderlecht supporter that feels for the unjustness of Union not winning after being 19 points ahead of Brugge at the end of the regular season.

I'll never complain about these rules. Makes it far more exciting and rules are rules. Just make sure you have enough points in the first round and that you really show up in the play-offs. Since this format we are doing better in Europe as well. People just like to complain and run along with others just to belong.

This is almost entirely how the Romanian league works too, literally with the only exception being that we have no "ECL playoff group", just a top 6 group and a bottom 10 relegation one. (and the bottom 10 only play 1-leg ties after the regular season) Besides that, almost everything is the same as in the Belgian league - it shows that this guy is unfamiliar with the dumb extra rules of smaller leagues like ours. (I think the Greek league, which PAOK won this year, also has a very similar format)

The problem is... USG play better than the other teams during the 16 team competition. But during the 6 team competition they have to defend their 1st position against some hungry/eager teams that are just as good as them..splitting the league is a bad idea for teams that are leading the league at that exact moment they start to stress about losing the lead!

Gent fan here (not Genk). i think it's a great system. Each year we mis play off 1 by the slightest of margins and then we just dominate play-off 2 and win the match for european footbal every year. 7th place every team, european footbal 5/6 times now. But i also like it because the play-off 1 system makes it so that there is still everything to play for and the 'best 6 teams' play each other. so the play-offs actually matter.

This year it was especially unfair for many reasons: - Club Brugge was terrible during the regular season. It was embarassing. They were good in Europe though and they were very good during the play offs. - Union was outstanding during the whole year, in Belgium and in Europe. They just had a terrible moment at the beginning of the play offs and lost three games. - Bruges got the advantage by the halving of points and a very questionnable decision from the ref in the very last game. Therefore they ended with just one point more than Union. The difference was so small and the last match was so controversial, that in the end their victory felt hollow. Union is always the underdog. They are a small team, but they punch incredibly above theri weight in Belgoium and Europe. They earned the title three years in a row and never got it. This year wa the most unfair. Brugge is the club with the larges budget. They should normally easily win and this year they were so bad that they didn't earn it. Now they somehow got a big recompense fot this disappointing season and they will be able to financially reinforce themselves further in order to ironically make the competition less fair. That's the reason why we need BS rules to make things more competitive.

Since its on espn+ ive been watching it more each season