1998–99 Belgian First Division

The 1998/99 season of the Jupiler League was held between August 21, 1998, and May 16, 1999. Racing Genk became champions.

Promoted teams

Aalst

Anderlecht

Beveren

Germinal Beerschot

Club Brugge

Charleroi

Sint-Truiden

Genk

Gent

Kortrijk

Standard

Lierse

Lokeren

Lommel

Mouscron

Oostende

Westerlo

Harelbeke

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Location of teams in Belgian First Division 1998–99

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

• Oostende (second division champions)
• Kortrijk (playoff winner)

Relegated teams

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

• Kortrijk
• Oostende

Genk's title success

After a deceiving start of the competition Anderlecht managed to come back at the top of the ranking under the management of Jean Dockx and Franky Vercauteren even beating its long-time rival Standard Liège in a memorable 0-6 demonstration. Two matches before the end of the season, the ranking was as such:

1. Genk       32 70
2. Brugge     32 68
3. Anderlecht 32 64

Those three teams were thus still able to win the championship. While Club Brugge lost its game to Mouscron 2-0, Anderlecht secured a 2-5 win to Genk. However the Racing did win its last match at Harelbeke and it thus became champion.

Battle for Europe

With Genk qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, Anderlecht and Brugge entered the UEFA Cup.

The relegation dog fight

Lommel avoided relegation by winning its last match 2-1 to Charleroi while the newcomer Kortrijk lost to Anderlecht. The other newcomer (Oostende) was already relegated at this moment.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drw	Lst	GF	GA	Pts	GD	Notes
1	K.R.C. Genk	34	22	7	5	74	38	73	+36	Qualified for 1999-2000 UEFA Champions League.
2	Club Brugge	34	22	5	7	65	38	71	+27	Qualified for 1999-2000 UEFA Cup.
3	R.S.C. Anderlecht	34	21	7	6	76	39	70	+37
4	R.E. Mouscron	34	19	9	6	76	47	66	+29
5	K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	34	17	6	11	69	61	57	+8	Qualified for 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
6	Standard Liège	34	17	3	14	55	47	54	+8
7	Lierse S.K.	34	16	6	12	72	47	54	+25	Qualified for 1999-2000 UEFA Cup.
8	K.A.A. Gent	34	14	10	10	55	59	52	-4
9	K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	34	14	9	11	52	46	51	+6	Qualified for 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
10	F.C. Germinal Ekeren	34	14	7	13	48	46	49	+2
11	K.R.C. Harelbeke	34	10	11	13	44	46	41	-2
12	K.V.C. Westerlo	34	11	7	16	56	62	40	-6
13	S.C. Eendracht Aalst	34	9	8	17	48	66	35	-18
14	R. Charleroi S.C.	34	7	11	16	40	54	32	-14
15	K.S.K. Beveren	34	8	6	20	33	60	30	-27
16	K.F.C. Lommel S.K.	34	7	7	20	33	56	28	-23
17	K.V. Kortrijk	34	6	7	21	49	81	25	-32	Relegated to Division II.
18	K.V. Oostende	34	4	10	20	27	79	22	-52

Top goal scorers

Scorer	Goals	Team
Jan Koller	24	Lokeren
Branko Strupar	18	Genk
Souleymane Oulare	17	Genk
Zoran Ban	16	Mouscron
Tomasz Radzinski	15	Anderlecht
Jochen Janssen	15	Westerlo
Filip Fiers	15	Sint-Truidense
Eric Van Meir	14	Lierse

See also

• 1998-99 in Belgian football

References

• Template:Fr icon Sport.be website - Archive