2003–04 Belgian First Division Explained

Competition:Belgian First Division
Season:2003–04
Winners:Anderlecht
Relegated:Heusden-Zolder
Antwerp
Continentalcup1:Champions League
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers:Anderlecht
Club Brugge
Continentalcup2:UEFA Cup
Continentalcup2 Qualifiers:Standard Liège
Beveren
League Topscorer:Luigi Pieroni
(28 goals)
Matches:306
Total Goals:824
Prevseason:2002–03
Nextseason:2004–05

The 2003–04 season of the Belgian First Division was held between 8 August 2003 and 15 May 2004. Sporting Anderlecht became champions on 24 April 2004.

Promoted teams

These teams were promoted from the second division at the start of the season:

Relegated teams

These teams were relegated to the second division at the end of the season:

Anderlecht's title success

The battle for the title was not great as Anderlecht had a big lead over their opponents (mainly Club Brugge). However, a bad finish from Anderlecht kept the suspense until the 31st matchday when Club Brugge drew with Mouscron while the team from Brussels also drew (1-1) at Herman Vanderpoortenstadion, the homeground of Lierse.

Battle for Europe

The next week, Club Brugge was sure to enter the UEFA Champions League Preliminary Round with a 1-0 win against Standard Liège, then lying third. In spite of this defeat, Standard managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup as they were 6 points ahead of Mouscron after the 32nd matchday. The suspense was killed after a 1-1 draw against Charleroi the next Saturday.

The relegation dog fight

The end of the league was thus centered on the battle against relegation. Four teams were concerned : R.A.E.C. Mons and Charleroi, which finally saved themselves, R. Antwerp F.C. and K. Beringen-Heusden-Zolder finishing respectively 6 and 5 points adrift.

Final league table

Top goal scorers

ScorerGoalsTeam
Luigi Pieroni28Mouscron
Émile Mpenza21Standard Liège
Tosin Dosunmu16Westerlo
Aruna Dindane15Anderlecht
Gert Verheyen15Club Brugge
Andrés Mendoza14Club Brugge
Cédric Roussel14Racing Genk

See also

References