1997–98 Belgian First Division

The 1997/98 season of the Jupiler League was held between August 8, 1997, and May 10, 1998. Club Brugge became champions.

Promoted teams

Aalst

Anderlecht
Molenbeek

Antwerp

Beveren

Germinal Beerschot

Club Brugge

Charleroi

Sint-Truiden

Genk

Gent

Standard

Lierse

Lokeren

Lommel

Mouscron

Westerlo

Harelbeke

class=notpageimage|

Location of teams in Belgian First Division 1997–98

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

• Beveren (second division champions)
• Westerlo (playoff winner)

Relegated teams

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

• RWDM
• Antwerp

Brugge's title success

Club Brugge ended in first place 18 points ahead of Racing Genk.

Battle for Europe

Sporting Anderlecht finally qualified for the UEFA Cup by ending in 4th place as Genk (2nd) and Brugge (1st) played the Cup final. The third team to qualify for the UEFA Cup was Germinal Ekeren (3rd).

The relegation dog fight

RWDM was relegated following a 1-1 draw at Charleroi as the newcomer Beveren managed to draw against Germinal Ekeren on the 33rd matchday. With 4 points more than RWDM the club from Waasland then lost to Anderlecht on the last matchday whereas RWDM easily beat Lokeren by 5-1.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drw	Lst	GF	GA	Pts	GD	Notes
1	Club Brugge	34	26	6	2	78	29	84	+49	Qualified for 1998-99 UEFA Champions League. [1]
2	K.R.C. Genk	34	20	6	8	65	40	66	+25	Qualified for 1998-99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.
3	K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot	34	17	7	10	60	48	58	+12	Qualified for 1998-99 UEFA Cup.
4	R.S.C. Anderlecht	34	16	9	9	53	37	57	+16
5	K.R.C. Zuid-West-Vlaanderen	34	15	10	9	50	31	55	+19	Qualified for 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
6	K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	34	16	4	14	68	68	52	0
7	Lierse S.K.	34	14	8	12	54	45	50	+9
8	K.A.A. Gent	34	11	14	9	50	44	47	+6
9	Standard Liège	34	11	10	13	53	50	43	+3
10	R.E. Mouscron	34	11	8	15	39	45	41	-6
11	K.F.C. Lommel S.K.	34	10	11	13	46	50	41	-4	Qualified for 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
12	K.V.C. Westerlo	34	9	14	11	52	56	41	-4
13	R. Charleroi S.C.	34	9	12	13	46	57	39	-11
14	K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	34	8	13	13	32	45	37	-13
15	K.S.C. Eendracht Aalst	34	9	9	16	51	66	36	-15
16	K.S.K. Beveren	34	7	11	16	30	48	32	-18
17	R.W.D. Molenbeek	34	8	7	19	39	74	31	-35	Relegated to Division II.
18	R. Antwerp F.C.	34	6	7	21	38	71	25	-33

^[1] Club Brugge competed in the UEFA Cup after losing their Champions League Second Qualifying Round tie.

Top goal scorers

Scorer	Goals	Team
Branko Strupar	22	Racing Genk
Tomasz Radzinski	19	Germinal Ekeren
Peter Lässen	15	Eendracht Aalst
Gunther Hofmans	15	Germinal Ekeren
Souleymane Oulare	14	Racing Genk

See also

• 1997-98 in Belgian football

References

• Template:Fr icon Sport.be website - Archive