{"id":5967,"date":"2017-01-03T10:35:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T10:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=5967"},"modified":"2017-02-06T16:26:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T16:26:20","slug":"fm17-guides-101-belgian-football-league-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2017\/01\/fm17-guides-101-belgian-football-league-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"#FM17 | Guides | A 101 on the Belgian Football League Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"
Everybody who has already managed a Belgian team on FM will have noticed that the football league structure is not a conventional one. I remember lots of questions on several boards about the structure whenever someone took over a Belgian club. With this piece, I try to give an overview about how the structure is set up and why it is set up this way.<\/p>\n
In order to understand the structure as introduced this season, I have to give a small summary about the history of the Belgian leagues. Before the 2009\/2010 season, the league structure was quite straight forward: the 1st division, called 1ste klasse, had 18 clubs. Those 18 clubs played each other twice where the leaders at the end of the season were crowned champions, numbers 2, 3 and 4 got into Europe, the last 2 in the standings were relegated and replaced by the champion of the 2nd division, called 2de klasse and the winner of a play-off.<\/p>\n
Everything ok you’d think: simple and straight forward league structure, nothing much to tinker with.<\/p>\n