Playing in Belgium?

Has anyone got experience of managing in the Pro League in Belgium?

It looks like there is a 30 game league season to start.

Then the league splits.

The top 6 in the league breakaway and form a Championship Group, (with everyone playing the other 5 twice), and the results being added to the existing league table.

Teams placed 7th-15th (ish)seem to be split into 2 groups called the European Places Playoff. Every team plays the other 3 teams twice each and the results form a new table, (previous league results ignored). The winners of each group play a 2-legged Final with the winner getting a place in the EURO Cup.

The bottom 2 teams seem to play eachother 4 times, (no really), and the loser is auto-relegated and the winner..... I think the winner has to play the vivtor of a 4-way playoff from the top teams in the league below.

That's what the rules and fixtures seem to be telling me but I'm confused because the team I'm thinking about managing finished 2nd in the pro League, (but doesn't seem to have EURO football next season, but the team who finished 3rd does.

The 3rd placed team won the Cup so maybe that's it.

It's confusing as hell. Basically, I want to know if they will be playing in Europe next season and I also want to get my head around what I am letting myself in for. Confused as hell.

2nd place always qualifies for Europe, except if you're so far in the future that there aren't enough spots anymore for Belgium.

Belgium is a country that tries to overcomplicate even the most basic things in life.

Cheers fabioke.

No they currently get 2 Champions League spots and 3 EURO League spots.

Does the rest of it make sense? Any hints?

The new format puts me off managing in Belgium and I used to love managing Belgian teams. With that 1-6 play-off, it's too difficult (for me) to win the league!

Not that it answers any of your questions!

So normally it should go like this

First place=Champions league

Second place=Champions league

Third place=Euro cup

Cup winner=Euro cup

The winner from the match between the (Winner from the final between group a and b) alias=AB vs fourth place=Euro cup

In your particular case(third place has won the cup) it could be possible that the 5th place plays against AB.

I hope it makes some sense?

The league rules tab will tell you how the continental qualifications are decided I think. Having just managed Antwerp for a few years I can totally relate to how confused you are.

This reminds me of managing in Brazil yonks ago. The State Pernambuco Champs was ridiculous. Started as a league, banged in a Cup Round, another 2 mini leagues and then finished off with a Cup. I can remember thinking, "that's gotta be it!" only to find that it just went on and on.

I think I might swerve the Pro League for a while. 1 more season in Serbia I think and then..... Croatia looks the likely destination.

It's a really hard league, i'm managing Charleroi in my second season and i can't seem to get any higher than the 10th place point, Anderlecht and Standard Liege and teams like that are too strong for me atm but the european play off thing was my saving grace after a terrible first season where i came 13th.. and won the play offs, and entered the europa league 2nd qualifying round

I've been on a good run and i'm in 7th for the last game of the season, win and i'll probably go 6th.. my logic is do i lose on purpose and come 7th and have a go at getting in the europa league.. because i'm not going to win the league as Anderlecht are too far away.. if this was a real life situation there'd be no logic to coming 6th right?

I've been on a good run and i'm in 7th for the last game of the season, win and i'll probably go 6th.. my logic is do i lose on purpose and come 7th and have a go at getting in the europa league.. because i'm not going to win the league as Anderlecht are too far away.. if this was a real life situation there'd be no logic to coming 6th right?

Prize money and better gate money from playing better teams. Plus, deliberately tanking would probably annoy your fans.

Also, the points from the first half of the season are halved and rounded up if necessary before the Championship playoff. So in real-life you could find yourself winning or losing the league by half a point...

Actually this happened to Standard Liege in 2010/11. They lost the league by what was effectively half a point.

Prize money and better gate money from playing better teams. Plus, deliberately tanking would probably annoy your fans.

And almost no TV coverage, last week there was a football analyst who said he didn't even watch play-off 2 on national television (irl). Playing against better teams is also better for player development and player value.

OneUnited has a good Career Thread going, where he's with Anderlecht:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/380756-FM14-Oliver-Jensen-s-Nomadic-Career-Thread

OneUnited has a good Career Thread going, where he's with Anderlecht:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/380756-FM14-Oliver-Jensen-s-Nomadic-Career-Thread

Cheers RTH. Will have to have a look at that I think.

Does anyone know what happens when the league goes from The Full league to the Championship Playoff?

Each team has played 30 games.

And the Top 6 get grouped together and although they keep their existing league record, the points tally has been reduced to suggest that it is only matches between them which have been counted.

The next 8 teams are grouped into 2 leagues of 4 and they start with a completely fresh league record.

The bottom 2 teams.... they seem to play against eachother 5 times with the bottom team being relegated and the top team playing a playoff against.... the 2nd ranked team in the Second League. (Don't even think about asking me how they work out who comes 2nd in the Second league). lol

Cheers RTH. Will have to have a look at that I think.

Does anyone know what happens when the league goes from The Full league to the Championship Playoff?

Each team has played 30 games.

And the Top 6 get grouped together and although they keep their existing league record, the points tally has been reduced to suggest that it is only matches between them which have been counted.

The next 8 teams are grouped into 2 leagues of 4 and they start with a completely fresh league record.

The bottom 2 teams.... they seem to play against eachother 5 times with the bottom team being relegated and the top team playing a playoff against.... the 2nd ranked team in the Second League. (Don't even think about asking me how they work out who comes 2nd in the Second league). lol

THe points are divided in half, all points count, for the top 6. The bottom two play a direct play off, with no 15 three points ahead of no 16.

This all sounds pretty confusing, but fun to try! May have a look when I'm sacked by Paris FC (which probably won't be long!)

2nd place always qualifies for Europe, except if you're so far in the future that there aren't enough spots anymore for Belgium.

Belgium is a country that tries to overcomplicate even the most basic things in life.

That is true But we have great chocolate and beer

Teams 1 tot 6 get their points devided . Team 7 - 14 play in two playoff groups and the winners of both groups play a final... the winner of that final plays against nr4 of the league.

Teams 15-16 play five games.. nr15 starts with 3 points and plays the first game @home ; If they win the relegation play offs they have to play 'playoffs' with teams from the second division..

It is crazy.. nobody likes it in Belgium .

That is true But we have great chocolate and beer

And moules-frites

And moules-frites

hehe also true.

That is true But we have great chocolate and beer

Teams 1 tot 6 get their points devided . Team 7 - 14 play in two playoff groups and the winners of both groups play a final... the winner of that final plays against nr4 of the league.

Teams 15-16 play five games.. nr15 starts with 3 points and plays the first game @home ; If they win the relegation play offs they have to play 'playoffs' with teams from the second division..

It is crazy.. nobody likes it in Belgium .

What's the nr?

The position in the league? :confused:

Who invented this system? The Belgian 2nd cousin of Mr Duckworth-Lewis?

What's the nr?

The position in the league? :confused:

Who invented this system? The Belgian 2nd cousin of Mr Duckworth-Lewis?

Nr is position i'm sorry.

.

They invented this to make everything more excited .. it works for playoff 1 , not for the teams 7th - 14th.. it is crazy.

Nr is position i'm sorry.

.

They invented this to make everything more excited .. it works for playoff 1 , not for the teams 7th - 14th.. it is crazy.

I actually quite like it as a concept, but then I'm not exposed to it every year in real life certainly. I'm all for things that makes leagues a bit more interesting, as long as it doesn't turn into a farce. Is it really that unpopular in Belgium? The addition of the play-offs in Scotland in particular have made a massive difference here. They're on a much smaller scale than Belgium, but it's now made things very interesting indeed for the bottom half of the table.

I remember someone telling me about a league in Africa (I think) where a Champion is crowned each week, kind of like winner stays on. The Champion is whoever holds it at the end of the season. I may be getting that slightly wrong, but there is at least an award for being the last "winner" at the end of the season. That's obviously an example of going too far, but it would certainly be something different!

I actually quite like it as a concept, but then I'm not exposed to it every year in real life certainly. I'm all for things that makes leagues a bit more interesting, as long as it doesn't turn into a farce. Is it really that unpopular in Belgium? The addition of the play-offs in Scotland in particular have made a massive difference here. They're on a much smaller scale than Belgium, but it's now made things very interesting indeed for the bottom half of the table.

I remember someone telling me about a league in Africa (I think) where a Champion is crowned each week, kind of like winner stays on. The Champion is whoever holds it at the end of the season. I may be getting that slightly wrong, but there is at least an award for being the last "winner" at the end of the season. That's obviously an example of going too far, but it would certainly be something different!

I think Bulgaria has something similar to this, not quite sure

I actually quite like it as a concept, but then I'm not exposed to it every year in real life certainly. I'm all for things that makes leagues a bit more interesting, as long as it doesn't turn into a farce. Is it really that unpopular in Belgium? The addition of the play-offs in Scotland in particular have made a massive difference here. They're on a much smaller scale than Belgium, but it's now made things very interesting indeed for the bottom half of the table.

I remember someone telling me about a league in Africa (I think) where a Champion is crowned each week, kind of like winner stays on. The Champion is whoever holds it at the end of the season. I may be getting that slightly wrong, but there is at least an award for being the last "winner" at the end of the season. That's obviously an example of going too far, but it would certainly be something different!

I like it too.

I think the African think you are talking about is something like the NZ Rugby Trophy the Ranfurly Shield, which is "held" until the team is beaten but only Home League matches and certain other matches count. It's a big deal in NZ and I love the idea of it.

I like it too.

I think the African think you are talking about is something like the NZ Rugby Trophy the Ranfurly Shield, which is "held" until the team is beaten but only Home League matches and certain other matches count. It's a big deal in NZ and I love the idea of it.

It wasn't New Zealand, although it sounds similar. It was some tiny country in either Africa or Asia. Will need to look into it.

Home grown rule is causing me problems, if i sign a 16year old foreigner, in 3 years do they become home grown as they're U19? would someone explain the whole home grown thing in detail please?

I think Bulgaria has something similar to this, not quite sure

Bulgarian league splits in 2, top 7 group and bottom 7 group. Top 7 challenge for the european spots (1 CL, 3 EL), and 4 teams are relegated from bottom 7 group (because next year there will be only 12 teams instead of 14). It really made the top 7 group much more interesting but as a side effect the 8 placed team (1st in bottom group) has more points than 5th placed team Also, the points remain from the regular season. I believe that next year the league will be divided in 2 groups x 6 teams after the regular season, but not sure as this year was used as an experiment for that format.

I actually quite like it as a concept, but then I'm not exposed to it every year in real life certainly. I'm all for things that makes leagues a bit more interesting, as long as it doesn't turn into a farce. Is it really that unpopular in Belgium? The addition of the play-offs in Scotland in particular have made a massive difference here. They're on a much smaller scale than Belgium, but it's now made things very interesting indeed for the bottom half of the table.

I remember someone telling me about a league in Africa (I think) where a Champion is crowned each week, kind of like winner stays on. The Champion is whoever holds it at the end of the season. I may be getting that slightly wrong, but there is at least an award for being the last "winner" at the end of the season. That's obviously an example of going too far, but it would certainly be something different!

There are people who like it and who don't like it. I think +- 70 procent of football fans and players dislike it ( speculation from my side) .

Playoff 1 system is ok , the playoff two system is really stupid.

First time posting here, but reading the forum for quite a bit now.

I'm belgian and in the 30% who actually like the format. For Playoff 1 teams it is without a doubt much more lucrative, because you'll play 8 to 10 topmatches.

And the nice thing for the Playoff 2 teams is that they still have a chance to go for a EL spot when finishing 7th to 14th in the regular competition.

And it actually happened once that KRC Genk finished 12th, and still went on to win the EL spot final against Sint Truiden.

I've loaded Belgium simply because I like these crazy league systems. Will try to get a job there if I ever get sacked by/bored of Liverpool.

Home grown rule is causing me problems, if i sign a 16year old foreigner, in 3 years do they become home grown as they're U19? would someone explain the whole home grown thing in detail please?

Your player will be homegrown if he spends 3 yrs in Belgium before his 21st birthday. So any player age 16-17-18 you sign will count as homegrown after 3 years.

Okay thanks,and also i want to sign some home grown players, so when i go to the transfer search theres 2 options.. 1. Trained in nation 2.trained at club, which one will mean theyre home grown or both? need some quality for the bench cos you need 6 HG players

Okay thanks,and also i want to sign some home grown players, so when i go to the transfer search theres 2 options.. 1. Trained in nation 2.trained at club, which one will mean theyre home grown or both? need some quality for the bench cos you need 6 HG players

Your player will be homegrown if he spends 3 yrs in Belgium before his 21st birthday. So any player age 16-17-18 you sign will count as homegrown after 3 years.

a player must spend 3 full years in a country before he turns 21 to become HG?

a player must spend 3 full years in a country before he turns 21 to become HG?

In Belgium yes