2011–12 Belgian Pro League - Wikipedia

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Jupiler Pro League

Season	2011–12
Champions	Anderlecht 31st league title
Relegated	Sint-Truiden Westerlo
Champions League	Anderlecht Club Brugge
Europa League	Lokeren Genk Gent
Matches played	302
Goals scored	892 (2.95 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jérémy Perbet (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Gent 6–0 Sint-Truiden
Biggest away win	Kortrijk 0–4 Gent, Genk 0–4 Anderlecht
Highest scoring	Cercle Brugge 6–4 OH Leuven
Longest winning run	7 matches[1] Anderlecht
Longest unbeaten run	16 matches[2] Anderlecht
Longest winless run	13 matches[3] Zulte Waregem
Longest losing run	6 matches[4] Sint-Truiden Westerlo
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

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.

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]

Club	Location	Venue	Capacity[citation needed]
R.S.C. Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium	28,063
Beerschot AC	Antwerp	Olympisch Stadion	13,132
Cercle Brugge K.S.V.	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,945
Club Brugge KV	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,945
K.R.C. Genk	Genk	Cristal Arena	24,900
K.A.A. Gent	Ghent	Jules Ottenstadion	12,919
K.V. Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Guldensporen Stadion	9,500
Lierse S.K.	Lier	Herman Vanderpoortenstadion	14,538
K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	Lokeren	Daknamstadion	10,000
KV Mechelen	Mechelen	Argosstadion Achter de Kazerne	13,123
R.A.E.C. Mons	Mons	Stade Charles Tondreau	12,000
Oud-Heverlee Leuven	Leuven	Den Dreef	8,519
K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	Sint-Truiden	Staaienveld	11,250
Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,000
K.V.C. Westerlo	Westerlo	Het Kuipje	7,982
S.V. Zulte-Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	8,500

Club	Chairman	Current manager	Team captain	Shirt sponsor
R.S.C. Anderlecht	Roger Vanden Stock	Ariël Jacobs	Lucas Biglia	BNP Paribas Fortis
Beerschot AC	Jos Verhaegen	no manager at end of season	Gary Kagelmacher	Quick
Cercle Brugge K.S.V.	Frans Schotte	Bob Peeters	Hans Cornelis	A D M B
Club Brugge KV	Bart Verhaeghe	Christoph Daum	Carl Hoefkens	Belfius
K.R.C. Genk	Herbert Houben	Mario Been	David Hubert	Euphony
K.A.A. Gent	Ivan De Witte	Trond Sollied	César Arzo	VDK
K.V. Kortrijk	Jozef Allijns	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Nebojša Pavlović	Digipass by VASCO
Lierse S.K.	Maged Samy	Chris Janssens	Eiji Kawashima	Wadi Degla
K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	Roger Lambrecht	Peter Maes	Killian Overmeire	Q-Team VP Lambrecht
KV Mechelen	Johan Timmermans	Marc Brys	Julien Gorius	Telenet
R.A.E.C. Mons	Dominique Leone	Enzo Scifo	Tom Van Imschoot	Holcim
Oud-Heverlee Leuven	Jan Callewaert	Ronny Van Geneugden	Bjorn Ruytinx	Option
K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	Bart Lammens	Franky Van der Elst	Peter Delorge	Belisol
Standard Liège	Roland Duchâtelet	José Riga	Jelle Van Damme	Nationale Loterij
K.V.C. Westerlo	Herman Wijnants	Jan Ceulemans	Jef Delen	Willy Naessens
S.V. Zulte-Waregem	Willy Naessens	Francky Dury	Karel D'Haene	Enfinity, Petrus

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]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Anderlecht	30	20	7	3	61	26	+35	67	Qualification to Championship play-offs
2	Club Brugge	30	19	4	7	51	32	+19	61
3	Gent	30	17	5	8	63	35	+28	56
4	Standard Liège	30	14	9	7	43	33	+10	51
5	Genk	30	13	7	10	60	44	+16	46
6	Kortrijk	30	13	7	10	39	36	+3	46
7	Cercle Brugge	30	13	7	10	36	37	−1	46	Qualification to Europa League play-offs
8	Lokeren	30	11	11	8	48	40	+8	44
9	Mechelen	30	10	7	13	40	50	−10	37
10	Mons	30	9	9	12	50	55	−5	36
11	Beerschot	30	9	9	12	45	51	−6	36
12	Lierse	30	6	13	11	24	36	−12	31
13	Zulte Waregem	30	6	12	12	32	38	−6	30
14	OH Leuven	30	7	8	15	38	58	−20	29
15	Westerlo	30	5	5	20	29	59	−30	20	Qualification to the Relegation play-offs
16	Sint-Truiden	30	3	10	17	32	61	−29	19

Source: soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) number of matches won; if teams are still tied a playoff is organised.

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]

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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Anderlecht (C)	10	5	3	2	16	8	+8	52	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
2	Club Brugge (Q)	10	5	2	3	14	11	+3	48
3	Genk (Q)	10	6	0	4	19	19	0	41	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
4	Gent	10	4	0	6	16	16	0	40	Qualification to Europa League Testmatch
5	Standard Liège	10	2	3	5	10	17	−7	35
6	Kortrijk	10	3	2	5	16	20	−4	34

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) Champions; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

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 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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CER	OHL	LIE	KVM
1	Cercle Brugge	6	3	2	1	16	10	+6	11	Playoff Final			6–4	0–0	3–1
2	OH Leuven	6	3	1	2	15	14	+1	10			3–2		1–1	4–2
3	Lierse	6	1	4	1	7	7	0	7		2–2	1–2		2–1
4	Mechelen	6	1	1	4	7	14	−7	4		0–3	2–1	1–1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MON	ZWA	BEE	LOK
1	Mons	6	3	2	1	8	4	+4	11	Playoff Final			0–1	2–0	1–1
2	Zulte-Waregem	6	2	2	2	7	8	−1	8			0–2		2–0	2–2
3	Beerschot	6	2	1	3	9	10	−1	7		1–1	3–1		4–1
4	Lokeren	6	1	3	2	9	11	−2	6		1–2	1–1	3–1

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.

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Cercle Brugge won 4–2 on aggregate.

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.

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Gent won 7–2 on aggregate.

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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Westerlo (R)	4	3	0	1	12	6	+6	12	Belgian Second Division final round
2	Sint-Truiden (R)	4	1	0	3	6	12	−6	3	Relegation to 2012–13 Belgian Second Division

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.
(R) Relegated

Source: sporza.be and Sport.be (in 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

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