The 2018–19 season of the Belgian First Division B began in August 2018 and ended in April 2019. It was the third season of the First Division B following a change in league format from the old Belgian Second Division.

The season was impacted by the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal which most notably involved Mechelen, as it was unclear upon completion of the season whether and how any involved clubs would be sanctioned and what the effect would be on the number of promotion and relegation places. As a result, Mechelen won the title and celebrated promotion on 16 March 2019, following a win over Beerschot Wilrijk in the promotion-playoffs, although the verdict on the investigation was still pending. End of May, Mechelen was found guilty and not allowed to be promoted, with runners-up Beerschot Wilrijk taking their spot instead. Mechelen appealed the decision at the Belgian Court for Sportsarbitration, which confirmed the verdict of guilt in July, but also ruled that according to the rules of the Belgian Football FA Mechelen could not be penalized with relegation back to the Belgian First Division A as the violation occurred during a previous season, hence Mechelen was allowed to keep its promotion.

Team changes In Mechelen were relegated from the 2017–18 Belgian First Division A after finishing in last place and return to the second level of Belgian football for the first time since the 2006–07 season. Lommel were promoted as 2017–18 Belgian First Amateur Division winners, immediately returning after being relegated from the 2016–17 Belgian First Division B.

Out Cercle Brugge won the promotion play-offs against Beerschot-Wilrijk and was thus promoted after three seasons at the second level. Lierse went bankrupt and dissolved as a team. Tubize had finished in last place in the relegation playoffs but were saved from relegation as a result of the bankruptcy of Lierse.

Team information

Stadiums and locations

Matricule Club City First season of current spell at second level</th> Coming from 2017-18 result Stadium Capacity155Antwerp2017–18Belgian First Amateur Division3rd (D1B)Olympic Stadium12,7712554Lommel2018–19Belgian First Amateur Division1st (D1Am) Soevereinstadion8,00025Mechelen2018–19Belgian First Division A16th (D1A) AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne16,67218Leuven2016–17Belgian Pro League2nd (D1B)Den Dreef10,000134Roeselare2010–11Belgian Pro League5th (D1B)Schiervelde Stadion9,0755632Tubize2009–10Belgian Pro League8th (D1B)Stade Leburton9,00010Saint-Gilles, Brussels2015–16Belgian Third Division6th (D1B)Stade Joseph Marien5,5002024Westerlo2017–18Belgian First Division A7th (D1B)Het Kuipje8,035

Personnel and kits Club Manager Captain Kit Manufacturer Sponsors Beerschot Wilrijk Stijn Vreven Tom Pietermaat Joma DCA Lommel Tom Van Imschoot Wouter Scheelen Legea United Telecom Mechelen Wouter Vrancken Seth De Witte Kappa Telenet and AFAS OH Leuven Vincent Euvrard Dimitri Daeseleire Vermarc King Power Roeselare Juanito Raphaël Lecomte Joma Euro Shop Tubize Philippe Thys Quentin Laurent Kappa No shirt sponsor Union SG Luka Elsner Charles Morren Patrick Culture et Formation Westerlo Bob Peeters Nicolas Rommens Saller Soudal

Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position Replaced by Date of appointment Union SG Marc Grosjean Mutual consent 8 May 2018Pre-season Luka Elsner 23 May 2018 Beerschot Wilrijk Marc Brys Signed by Sint-Truiden 21 May 2018 Stijn Vreven 25 May 2018 Mechelen Dennis van Wijk Sacked 20 August 2018 7th Wouter Vrancken 21 August 2018 Roeselare Jordi Condom 10 November 2018 7th Nano 12 November 2018 Roeselare Nano Release fee paid by Shanghai Greenland Shenhua 8 January 2019 Closing tournament: 4thOverall: 6th Juanito 11 January 2019 OH Leuven Nigel Pearson Sacked 3 February 2019 Closing tournament: 7thOverall: 8th Vincent Euvrard 8 February 2019

League table Opening tournament

Closing tournament

Aggregate table

Promotion play-offs The winners of the opening tournament and the closing tournament will meet in a two-legged match to determine the division champion, who will promote to the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A. The team finishing highest in the aggregate table will be allowed to play the second leg at home. In case a single team wins both the opening and the closing tournament, that team will be promoted automatically and no play-offs will be organized.

On 9 November 2018, Mechelen won the opening tournament and was therefore assured of playing at least the promotion play-offs. On the final day of the closing tournament, Mechelen only managed a draw away to Lommel, allowing Beerschot Wilrijk to win the closing period. If Mechelen had won they would have assured direct promotion, instead they had to face Beerschot-Wilrijk in the promotion play-offs.

The first leg saw both teams having chances, with goalkeeper Michael Verrips making big saves in the first half to deny attempts by Erwin Hoffer and Gertjan De Mets, while in the second half Mechelen failed to take advantage of a red card for Jan Van den Bergh. In the second leg, Beerschot-Wilrijk again saw a player sent off following a vicious tackle by Marius Noubissi already after 32 minutes. Nikola Storm opened the score for Mechelen just after the start of the second half, but ten-men Beerschot-Wilrijk managed the equalizer through penalty kick and looked on its way to promote via the away goals rule, when substitute Clément Tainmont scored a volley just two minutes from time to win the match and send Mechelen back to the highest division after just one season in the Belgian First Division B. With that, Beerschot Wilrijk lost the promotion play-offs for the second consecutive year. Several weeks later, Mechelen was found guilty of match-fixing and not allowed to promote as a result, with Beerschot-Wilrijk taking their spot. Mechelen appealed the decision successfully, as per the rules of the Belgian FA they could no longer be punished for events of more than one year in the past.

Mechelen won 2–1 on aggregate.

Relegation play-offs The four bottom teams in the aggregate table took part in the relegation play-offs in which they kept half of the points they collected during the overall regular season (rounded up). As a result, the teams started with the following points before the playoff: Roeselare 17 points, Lommel 16, OH Leuven 15, and Tubize 12. As the points of all teams were rounded up, the half-point deduction was irrelevant in the case of ties. Tubize started the play-offs strongest, with 2 draws and a win, resulting in no team being safe after three matchdays. On matchday 4, Lommel became the first team to be certain of avoiding relegation following a 3–0 home win over Tubize. Standings after that matchday were Lommel at 23, OH Leuven at 22, Roeselare at 19, and Tubize at 17 (with Lommel ahead of Tubize in case of ties due to finishing higher in the regular season aggregate table). On matchday 5, Tubize was relegated as they first lost at home to OH Leuven 0–3, after which they needed Roeselare to drop points at Lommel two days later. A 0–1 away win of Roeselare meant Tubize was relegated to the Belgian First Amateur Division and the final matchday was irrelevant, only for Roeselare to overtake Lommel in the final standings.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank Player Club Goals1 Leonardo RochaLommel162 Igor de CamargoMechelen13 Thomas HenryOH LeuvenIncludes eleven goals scored for Tubize, before his transfer to OH Leuven. Youssouf NiakatéUnion SG Dante VanzeirBeerschot Wilrijk6 Marius NoubissiBeerschot Wilrijk127 Faïz SelemaniUnion SG98 Gustav EngvallMechelen89 Jens NaessensWesterlo710 Kurt AbrahamsWesterlo6 Frédéric DuplusOH Leuven Roman FerberUnion SG Mathieu MaertensOH Leuven Percy TauUnion SG Tarik TissoudaliBeerschot Wilrijk 5 goals (6 players)

Jan Van den Bergh (Beerschot Wilrijk) Rob Schoofs (Mechelen) Nikola Storm (Mechelen) Joachim Van Damme (Mechelen) Elliott Moore (OH Leuven) Saviour Godwin (Roeselare)

4 goals (3 players)

Laurens Vermijl (Lommel) Thibaut Van Acker (Roeselare) Lukas Van Eenoo (Westerlo)

3 goals (16 players)

Erwin Hoffer (Beerschot Wilrijk) Sebastiaan Brebels (Lommel) Glenn Claes (Lommel) Clément Tainmont (Mechelen) William Togui (Mechelen) Joeri Dequevy (OH Leuven) Bartosz Kapustka (OH Leuven) Derrick Tshimanga (OH Leuven) Mohammed Aoulad (Roeselare) Andrei Camargo (Roeselare) Esteban Casagolda (Roeselare)Includes one goal scored for OH Leuven, before his transfer to Roeselare. Nicolas Rajsel (Roeselare) Ernest Agyiri (Tubize) Pedro Henrique (Tubize) Anthony Schuster (Tubize) Thibault Peyre (Union SG)

2 goals (17 players)

Denis Prychynenko (Beerschot Wilrijk) Jorn Vancamp (Beerschot Wilrijk) Tom Van Hyfte (Beerschot Wilrijk) Glenn Neven (Lommel) Sam Valcke (Lommel) Mathieu Cornet (Mechelen) Arjan Swinkels (Mechelen) George Hirst (OH Leuven) Samy Kehli (OH Leuven) Kjetil Borry (Roeselare) Baptiste Schmisser (Roeselare) Arsenio Valpoort (Roeselare) Hugo Vidémont (Tubize) Pietro Perdichizzi (Union SG) Ambroise Gboho (Westerlo) Nader Ghandri (Westerlo) Sava Petrov (Westerlo)

1 goal (32 players)

Pierre Bourdin (Beerschot Wilrijk) Alexander Maes (Beerschot Wilrijk) Euloge Placca Fessou (Beerschot Wilrijk) Robin Henkens (Lommel) Daan Heymans (Lommel) Seth De Witte (Mechelen) Onur Kaya (Mechelen) Germán Mera (Mechelen) Yannick Aguemon (OH Leuven) Julien Gorius (OH Leuven) Redouane Kerrouche (OH Leuven) Jarno Libert (OH Leuven) Olivier Myny (OH Leuven) Koen Persoons (OH Leuven) Kenneth Schuermans (OH Leuven) Stijn De Smet (Roeselare) Guy Dufour (Roeselare) Kingsley Madu (Roeselare) Emile Samyn (Roeselare) Gino van Kessel (Roeselare) Dejan Čabraja (Tubize) Shean Garlito (Tubize) Lemouya Goudiaby (Tubize) Aaron Nemane (Tubize) Marco Weymans (Tubize) Mathias Fixelles (Union SG) Serge Tabekou (Union SG) Fabien Antunes (Westerlo) Maxime Biset (Westerlo) Stephen Buyl (Westerlo) Nicolas Rommens (Westerlo) Noël Soumah (Westerlo)

1 own goal (8 players)

Maxime Biset (Westerlo, scored for Mechelen) Gaëtan Coucke (Lommel, scored for Mechelen) Joren Dom (Beerschot Wilrijk, scored for Roeselare) Salomon Nirisarike (Tubize, scored for Mechelen) Pietro Perdichizzi (Union SG, scored for Tubize) Baptiste Schmisser (Roeselare, scored for Mechelen) Noël Soumah (Westerlo, scored for Mechelen) Jorn Vancamp (Beerschot Wilrijk, scored for Lommel)

Team of the season Upon completion of the regular season a team of the season award was compiled, based upon the results of the team of the week results throughout the season, constructed based on nominations from managers, assistant-managers, journalists and analysts. The results were announced from 22 March 2019, with one player revealed each day.

PositionPlayerClubReference GK Tubize RB Union SG CB Union SG & Mechelen CB Beerschot Wilrijk LB OH Leuven MF Mechelen MF Westerlo MF Lommel LW Mechelen RW Union SG FW Mechelen

Number of teams by provinces Number of teams Province or region Team(s)3Beerschot Wilrijk, Mechelen and Westerlo1 Union SGOH LeuvenLommelTubizeRoeselare

Attendances

# Club Average 1 Mechelen 13,527 2 OHL 6,012 3 Beerschot 5,526 4 Westerlo 3,123 5 RUSG 2,878 6 Lommel 2,458 7 Roeselare 2,131 8 Tubize 1,519

Source:https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/bel/avebel19.htm

Notes

References