Belgian Second Division play-offs

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The Belgian Second Division play-offs are a series of playoff matches, contested by teams of the Belgian Second Division and recently also a team from the Belgian Pro League. Four teams take part, with the winner being promoted to (or avoiding relegation from) the Belgian Pro League.

Eligibility

The 34 regular-season games are grouped into 3 periods: the first period contains the first 10 rounds of matches, the next period matches 11 to 22, and the other 12 matches are part of the third and last period. The overall leader after 34 games is automatically promoted as second division champion. The four qualifiers for the play-offs are the winners of the three periods, and the second-last team in the first division.

However, no team can play in the first division without a professional license. It is also frequently the case that the overall champion wins one or several periods. Theoretically, a period winner might be near the bottom of the overall rankings, either relegated to the third division or in the third division playoff: such a team would be ineligible for the second division playoff. In all these circumstances, any space in the playoffs is filled by the next-highest team in the overall regular-season.

The competition

The playoff is a double round robin tournament with 6 matchdays, spaced over 19 days. Standings are determined by the following criteria, in order:

  1. number of points, with three points for a win and one for a draw;
  2. number of wins;

If teams are still equal, a test match needs to be organised between those teams.

Last winners

Here is a list of the winners of the play-offs, qualifying for next season's Pro League. The first year, the two top clubs were qualified, K Lierse SK finishing first and KFC Winterslag qualifying as second-placed team. In 1996, three clubs had to qualify for Belgian First Division and the second-placed team of the second division (KRC Genk) skipped the play-offs.

See also

References

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