Domestic football
The Belgian Pro League
The Belgian Pro League is the top division of Belgian football. After a 2025-26 transition season using 16 clubs and play-offs, the league is set to return to an 18-team, 34-match format without play-offs from 2026-27. Founded in 1895, it is one of the oldest football leagues in Europe. Anderlecht are the most successful club with 34 league titles, followed by Club Brugge with 20.
What the Belgian Pro League is
The Belgian Pro League is the top-flight league of Belgian football.
The Belgian Pro League is set to be contested by 18 clubs from 2026-27. Every club plays the others twice — once at home, once away — for 34 matches in total. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. The team finishing top of the table at the end of the season are crowned Belgian champions.
The competition dates back to the 1895-96 season, when it was launched by the Royal Belgian Football Association, although the championship was interrupted during both world wars. FC Liégeois won the first edition. The competition is run by the Pro League.
Clubs level on points are separated first by the number of matches won — a long-standing feature of Belgian football that sets it apart from leagues using goal difference first — then by goal difference and goals scored. Belgian rules have also traditionally allowed a deciding play-off at a neutral venue where two clubs finish level for the title or relegation and cannot otherwise be separated.
The recent play-off format
The Belgian Pro League's defining feature in recent years was the play-off system introduced in 2009.
In the recent play-off format, after the 30-match regular season, the league split into three play-off competitions. The Championship Play-offs (Play-offs I) were contested by the top six clubs, who played each other twice across 10 matches. The clubs' regular-season points were halved when carrying over to the Championship Play-offs, although clubs with an odd number of points rounded up. The winners of the Championship Play-offs were Belgian champions.
In the recent 16-team format, clubs ranked 7th to 12th entered the Europe Play-offs, while clubs ranked 13th to 16th entered the Relegation Play-offs. Points were halved for the Championship and Europe Play-offs, but carried over in full for the Relegation Play-offs. The 2025-26 season was a transition year before the league expanded: clubs finishing 13th, 14th and 15th after the relegation phase were safe, while the bottom club after the Relegation Play-offs faced a promotion/relegation play-off against the Challenger Pro League promotion play-off winners. From 2026-27, the league returns to a straight 18-team, 34-match format with no play-offs.
How clubs qualify for European competition
Recent play-off formats decided European qualification alongside the title.
European qualification depends on Belgium's UEFA access-list position and on whether the Belgian Cup winners have already qualified through the league. In recent formats, the champions have usually taken the strongest Champions League place, with further European places allocated through the Championship Play-offs, the Belgian Cup, and a play-off involving the winners of the Europe Play-offs. Belgium's strong UEFA country coefficient in recent seasons has given the league a relatively healthy continental allocation for a mid-sized European competition.
Belgian clubs have a strong record in European competitions across the modern era. Anderlecht won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1976 and 1978, and the UEFA Cup in 1983. Club Brugge lost the European Cup final to Liverpool in 1978 and the UEFA Cup final to the same opponents in 1976. KV Mechelen won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1988. The most distinctive recent run was Royale Union Saint-Gilloise's continental breakthrough in the early 2020s, including deep Europa League and Conference League runs.
The most successful clubs
A small group of clubs has dominated Belgian football across the league's history.
Anderlecht
The most successful Belgian club, with 34 league titles. Anderlecht are based in Brussels and have been the country's dominant force across multiple eras. They won five consecutive league titles from 1963-64 to 1967-68 — a Belgian record — under coach Pierre Sinibaldi and built around Paul Van Himst. Anderlecht have also won three major European trophies and are the most recognised Belgian club worldwide.
Club Brugge
Twenty league titles, the second-most. Club Brugge are based in Bruges in Flanders and have been Anderlecht's main challenger across most of the modern era. Their modern record includes frequent league titles from the mid-2010s onwards, with their 2025-26 championship taking them to 20 overall. Club Brugge reached the European Cup final in 1978, losing 1-0 to Liverpool at Wembley.
Union Saint-Gilloise
Twelve league titles, with their most recent in 2024-25 — ending a 90-year title drought that stretched from 1935. Union Saint-Gilloise are based in Brussels and were Belgium's dominant pre-World War II club, with 11 titles between 1903 and 1935. Their modern revival began after their 2021 promotion from the second tier, with a near-miss in 2021-22 and the 2024-25 championship.
Standard Liège
Ten league titles. Standard Liège are based in Liège and were one of the dominant Belgian clubs of the 1960s and 1970s, winning three titles in a row from 1968-69 to 1970-71. They have been regular European competition entrants across the modern era and reached the 1981-82 European Cup Winners' Cup final.
Other notable winners
Other Belgian champions include Beerschot (7), Racing Brussels (6), Daring Brussels (5), Antwerp (5, including their 2022-23 modern revival), Lierse SK (4), KV Mechelen (4), Genk (4), and Gent (1, the surprise 2014-15 champions under coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck). The Belgian top flight has been won by 16 different clubs across its long history.
A century-long competition
The Belgian Pro League is one of the oldest organised football leagues in Europe. Since the first championship in 1895-96, the title has been won by clubs from different cities and towns across Belgium, giving the league a long history beyond its best-known modern clubs.
A short history
The Belgian Pro League has been Belgium's top football competition since 1895.
The first Belgian football league was held in 1895-96 with seven founding clubs, including FC Liégeois (the inaugural winners), FC Brugeois, and Antwerp FC. The league grew across the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with Union Saint-Gilloise dominating the early decades. Belgium's league structure developed gradually across the early 20th century, with national lower divisions and promotion and relegation becoming part of the system before later reforms reshaped the pyramid.
The Belgian Pro League's modern era has been shaped by several major format changes. The play-off system was introduced in 2009 to add more high-stakes matches and reduce the predictability of the title race in a smaller league. The league size was reduced from 18 to 16 clubs in 2023, with the planned return to 18 clubs in 2026-27 reversing this change and removing the play-offs. Union Saint-Gilloise's 2024-25 title — their first in 90 years — Royal Antwerp's 2022-23 title, their first in 66 years, and Club Brugge's return to the title in 2025-26 have all shaped the league's recent story.
What to read next
The natural next steps are other major European leagues or the wider domestic football umbrella.