I like the playoff system. But I think overall it is a massiv disadvantage to other european leagues because we play much more games per season. So we keep losing in international tournaments because other players have more rest
@@LeBabo47 , not so true as you see the Premier League, LaLiga....So many teams, several differents cups..... They play many many matches....The secret is to have a wide range of players and ....use them when needed.... To my eyes, the play-off system adds some thrill and forces the teams to be fit at the right moment....😉
@@johnminer007 I would basically only give it to premier league, they have a tough calender too. And you can see them underperform in UCL too... City, Arsenal both bottled UCL, and also the "smaller" teams didn't really perform in europa league and conference league...
@@LeBabo47 , yes, maybe, but they are anyway present till the 1/4 finals at least, and, on our side, the results in Europe became better after the P.O system...Difficult to know what is better, in fact....
@@LeBabo47 Belgian teams has actually had their best European year this season and last season since the glorious 80s, they actually can focus more on the group stage during the first half of the year, which brings many points to the UEFA coefficient
As a Belgian, this goes perfectly in line with how the rest of Belgium is organised. Make it as complicated as possible so the common folk wont know what's really going on, whilst politicians and industry reap the rewards.
@@appletree13I would argue that Belgium is a much better country to live in than the US or Canada right now. Yes our political system is complicated but if you learn a bit about it you find out there's usually a pretty good reason behind all these complications. Belgium scores well in a lot of metrics and most Belgians enjoy a pretty luxurious life with there being a large middle class, a poverty rate that's been decreasing for a long time and great protections for the socially vulerable like access to universal, affordable healthcare and indexed wages. On top of that there's great food, lots of history and a pretty unique culture.d The weather sucks though.
As an USG fan, I can confirm we keep bottling the league every year. 2 years ago by finishing 1st in the normal phase and then second after playoffs, then last year being 1st 10 minutes before the end of the league but ending up 3rd, and now this year once again being 1st in the normal phase and 2nd after playoffs ... Next year will be the year (maybe) (hopefully) (nah we will bottle it once again)
cutting the points in half seem ridiculous to me though because USG loses 35pts overall and Club Brugge only 25pts, so basically means 10pts from the first part of the season just were all for nothing.
Important to know. Club Brugge is one of the only teams (directors and fans) who were against this rules from the beginning. The president repeated this after the title. He hoped that other teams would finally be convinced now.
Not true, Brugge was one of the founders, together with Anderlecht , Genk and Gent. It was still the old board, in 2010 ( after one season ) there was already a vote to go back but they didnt want to : Quote : AA Gent, Anderlecht, Club Brugge en Racing Genk wilden liever de huidige opzet behouden. Uiteindelijk stemden de twaalf andere clubs voor een terugkeer naar het vroegere systeem
In Romania is almost the same format. 16 teams, 30 games championship format. The difference is that we have two groups in the second part of the season: PLAYOFF (6 teams)and PLAYOUT (10 teams) with the points also being cut in halt... And the weirdest part is European leagues qualification rules... The winner of playoff (which is considered the championship winner) Goes only in the first qualification round of UCL; The runner-up goes in the qualification round for Conference league (not even UEL) and 3rd team in championship play a Conference League playoff with the 3rd team in relegation round. Also the winner and the runner-up of Relegation round goes in the Conference League qualifications. And the cup winner goes to Europa League qualifications (Which, in this season, was a second division team who doesn't have promotion rights because is own by a public organization and not a private one...) And with all this...last season, we didn't have any team in european competitions💀 Maybe I am a bit wrong 'cause I am not 100% sure if is exactly how I said, but is something like this... (Now is weirder with the new UCL format) I wish that in one day we will have 18 or 20 teams in the 1st division and the normal home/away format
You got the conference league playoffs wrong. Top 2 teams in the relegation round("playout") go to the playoff, in a one-off game hosted by the team that finished above. Then, the winner goes on an away day to the 3rd placed team in in the championship round("playoff"), for the final round of this Conference League playoff. The winner goes to the 2nd qualification round of the Conference League. This year, the top spot in the relegation round was taken by a team without a UEFA license, thus the 2nd and 3rd spots went to this playoff instead...
I hate our system so much. Ever since it started, I stopped watching our championship. It's absolutely abnormal and unfair that we have to play 100 derbies every year and that points get cut in half. Whoever came up with the system should be removed from FRF or LPF or wherever. All of them should be removed. And what was their promise with this system? We'll be more competitive in Europe: we're not more competitive are we? When was the last time we had a team in the European spring? I remember it happening quite a few times before this system. What about since the introduction of the system?
Lasă-mă în plm cu cacatul nostru de ligă , după ce ca ai nostrii joaca un football de câmp mai au și dublat meciurile sa scoată mai multi bani , dar parca mai rau au facut cu formatul asta 😂😂
Format is more than 10 years old...loved it every season. Exciting every time. All of us know the rules at the start of the season...so nothing unfair there
As a Belgian and an USG fan , I'm fed up with this format... It's so sad each and every year being literally first and BY FAR as well getting fkd every year is so unfair.
that was certainly a lot to take in, honestly the only thing I have problem with is completely changing the tiebreaker rules in the playoffs that is just unnecessary complication.
Yeah I agree, splitting the league and halfing the points is not that unusual, several European league do something similar. But having the standing after the 1st phase is dumb imo and almost feels like they admitting that it is unfair, so they give a small advantage back to the teams that were hit the worst by losing half their points
I followed the competition when they didn't even have the playoff system Just play against each team twice and that was is I don't follow football matches anymore, but I really dislike the playoffs anyway
It is actually less insane than it used to be. Until a couple of years ago the 2nd division teams were also included in what is now the ECL group. Speaking of the second division: In 2020 this league was played in two separate halfs, similar to Mexiko, the winners of each half would play out the team to be promoted in a two legged tie. Unfortunately all professional sport was suspended in Belgium due to Covid before the second leg could be played, the end of this ban was scheduled for only a few days before the next season was supposed to begin. So the plan was to cram the second leg in that short period and I think that is what did happen but in case the game could not be played they came up with a plan B: The team that did best over both periods would have been promoted in this case. What makes this so weird is that that was team, which was very consistent over the whole season but failed to win either period, so that team wasn’t even in the play-off match and originally had no chance to get promoted at all. I don’t think it works like that anymore and I got it from foreign sports media at the time, so if there are any inaccuracies feel free to correct me
It was introduced to improve the quality of the Belgian football: the top teams would play eachother more in this format. And it works, the quality has improved and as a spectator you get to see more interesting games. The biggest debate is about cutting the points in half. Even as a neutral spectator I feel bad for Union Saint-Giiloise. If feels unjust. But there's nothing wrong or weird about the format.
There is only 1 reason this format was introduced : money. There are only 6 belgians who shoved this disastrous format down our throats: the presidents of the 6 biggest clubs... one of which is now bankrupt through fraud. Spectators, football fans, club supporters or players had no voice in the decision.
@@101jtag Money always plays a role no matter what, football isn't an exception. So let's not pretend your post is a big revelation. Apart from that it's a very bitter post. You must be really fun in the stands 💀
@@101jtag cause they are already the strongest and will be for the simple reason that they have more money pumped into, bigger pool of football clubs and many more things. Doesn't matter which smaller country we talk about, may it be Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Czechia, Hungary or whoever, they will 99,9% never get close to France, Italy, England, Germany, Spain. So they spice up their leagues format to hopefully spark some interest from outsiders or investors. (which is the whole point of them doing, more money, better infrastructure, youth academy programs etc to slightly close the gap)
as a belgian, a lot of people like the system because it gives another exciting few matches where every match is a final for every team... it gives more excitement for the fans and the thing is if you had a bad start of the season you can still have a chance, if you win the league (the first 30 matches) you still have to prove to yourself that you can beat the best of the league week in week out because thats what you have to do in the champions league next season if you win anyway
7:55 you may not realize it, but these images are pretty spot on for the actual city Antwerp. also, to expand: Gent won the game against Genk, so are now into European football (10 years in a row!) the Belgian FA has had several meetings since you posted this video, to change the format . proposals include dropping the halved points or going back to making common sense (dropping playoffs alltogether), but no one could agree, so they're sticking to this. and to answer one question: they decided to halve the points, out of fear that one club might get into the play-offs with a substantial lead that would see the title decided before they play-off was halfway done.
But look at this season: Club Bruges 21 wins, 7losses they got 1st place Union 25 wins, 6 losses 2nd place Ofcourse you have to win every match but (just to make it clear to you in case you didn't get it) this is ridiculous
@@TylerAven10 I know. I am a supporter of Anderlecht and the reply above was to show my frustration with the fact that Union, our neighbors, didn't get the title while they deserved it. After 30 regular season matches they had 19 points on Bruges, just let that sink in
@@EddyGojim We at Club Brugge has always been against the playoffs. But now that we heavily take advantage off it everyone is so against it. We had to shut up every year and accept that it is the way it is. Let that sink in.
I might be minority here but I personally freaking loved this unqiue format. I would make a couple of changes here n there but overall, the idea behind it is amazing 👏
Its to increase the amount of competitive games. Through this format the stronger teams face each other 4 times instead of the usual 2 times. It was done in the hope of elevating the gameplay and make us more competitive in europe despite having less money. Given our coefficiency last couple of years has been on the rise. I would say it worked.
The league format has given us some of the most mental/dramatic final league days you would normally only see in movies. The tagline is 'unscripted drama' for a reason. I honestly like it a lot better than the boring leagues where a team (usually the same team) clinches the title with still a handful of games to play. But many people seem to think it's unfair to cut the points in half. The critics are probably going to get their way and the league is now considering to do away with the halving of the points for the play-offs. I predict that in a few years many of those critics will think back of the good ol' days of current league system.
The Belgian competition is playing for peanuts in the first part of the season and in the end a team with less wins than the best team can become champions. Only in Belgium would they celebrate this kind of utter stupidity.
@@thomasf4605how is it not fair? It's the same for everyone. Btw life is not fair, where comes this thought from, that everything must always be fair? That's not real life 😂
@@thomasf4605 Exactly. I'm not Belgian (although my country, Romania, does have an almost identical system), but from Belgium I support Brugge, while from Romania, I support Steaua (who also won the title this year). Regardless of that: unfair is unfair, regardless whether my teams win or not.
A lot of people find the halving unjust and I understand their point of view however when we take the overall level of the league into consideration it makes sense. 1/ During these playoffs, the teams will have to get points against the best teams of the league which will make the teams good against stronger opposition emerge. 2/ It will bring pressure to the teams on top. When you consider the European competition, the teams representing Belgium will need to play against strong teams rather than low block defensive ones and they will need to resist the pression of direct elimination matches. I don't know if it was the initial purpose but it can make the clubs better on the European scene.
okay, this doesn't change that it's completely unfair. fuck the pro league. all they care about is their fucking money. they shouldn't forget that football is nothing without the fans. boycott JPL.
The initial purpose was indeed to make Belgian clubs more competitive on the European scene. But it is a bit of a paradox. Belgian clubs got more competitive, but the playoff system has games every 3-4 days and is played in the same period as when the CL, Europa league or Conference are in the knock out rounds. Making it harder to compete in both the national and European leagues as fatigue sets in and Belgian clubs don't have the financial means to have two full squads of league worthy players (like PL teams)...
It's all in the wording. "Halving" makes it sounds like a disadvantage, while it's actually a huge advantage. I don't think there's a single play off system in any sports where you start with such a big advantage as keeping half your points of the regular competion. NBA goes to best of 7 where the regular season doesn't matter at all. In volleyball we start with points based on position of the regular competition. 1 gets 6 points, 2 5 points all the way down to 6 starting with 1 point.
Honestly, I adore the Belgian playoff system, I believe it strikes the perfect balance between a straight traditional league format and the MLS cup style playoff system. I watched that Aldeweireld title winning goal live last year, it was absolute insanity and what made me such a big believer in this format. People don’t like the halving of points, I get it because it’s not what people are used to, but the whole point is that playoff games are supposed to tangibly matter more than regular season games, and to me it’s incredible. Traditional leagues are cool, so is the MLS Cup, but I think this is actually the best system that could be made to strike a middle ground balance providing benefit to the best regular season performers. Also USG are becoming legendary bottlejobs 😭😭 3 straight years bottling the title
I don’t think it is unjust either. In the MLS play-offs or promotion play-offs, teams that did worse in the league can beat teams with a better record too an no one is complaining there that they have fewer wins, even if you include the play-off win. In Belgium the wins in the regular season at least give you some advantage and are not completely deleted as they are in an American play-off system. But I think the tie breakers are unnecessarily complicated, you have to pull out multiple standings, remember how the points were halved etc. good old goal difference is better imo because it is always included in the current standings, making it as easy as possible. Also I feel like the ECL group must be really boring. They only play for one spot, to MAYBE play in the Conference League QUALIFIERS. The way to the actual Conference League is long, so there is a good chance that the winner of the ECL group won’t even reach it and even if: Belgium is regularly featured in the CL or EL, so how big is the interest in the ECL group really?
It's not just in Belgium. A lot of Eastern European countries have adopted it, including my own, and I absolutely hate it. I shouldn't have to play 100 derbies per year, points shouldn't be divided in half. There shouldn't be play off games to begin with. It should be simple: everyone plays everyone twice and the team with most points wins. I don't want the competition to be more "interesting" (I stopped watching altogether), I want it to be fair. If one team has 20 points in front, so be it, good for them, the other teams should have played better, better luck next season. Instead of dividing their advantage, to artificially raise tension. Who are the most successful countries? England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy. None of them have this dumb system. Why? Because the system doesn't do much. Money does. Attract investors, invest in youth/infrastructure, that's what raises the level, not mediocre teams playing more games against one another. Mediocre vs mediocre = mediocre, whether they play 2, 4 or 100 matches.
If you think this is crazy then you should do a coverage of the US sports format. There's an insane amount of games during the regular season and it's just to determine who gets a spot in the play-offs and who gets home advantage. Other than that, it all starts at 0-0. Aside of that, there's no promotion or relegation. How insane is that???
I feel like a lot of these headaches could have been avoided if they had just gone "During the final bits of the season, wins are 6 points and ties are 2." That would also display the intent better. "We would like the final bits of the season to still be competitive even if number 1 ran away with the season."
There would be a 4 team Champions play off without the Points getting cut in half,2 teams relegated instead of the relegation play-offs and place 5-14 would play in a little knock-out playoff. The winner of that would play the 4th placed team in the Champions play off for the last ticket.For full explanation,I recommend Sporza or the Jupiler Pro League website
Club Brugge is, as one of the only teams, strongly against this format since day 1. And still are after winning the title. People complaining that we took advantage of it this year are crying about it. We did that for the last 14 years. Only that makes it 10x better. 💙🖤
Not true, Brugge was one of the founders, together with Anderlecht , Genk and Gent. It was still the old board, in 2010 ( after one season ) there was already a vote to go back but they didnt want to : Quote : AA Gent, Anderlecht, Club Brugge en Racing Genk wilden liever de huidige opzet behouden. Uiteindelijk stemden de twaalf andere clubs voor een terugkeer naar het vroegere systeem
3:20 Doesn't the Austrian Bundesliga have something similar as well, where the top 6 clubs have their points halved and play again in a championship round to determine the winner of the league for the season?
@@Tobi-ln9xr Well in 2023 Scotland was ranked 9th by coefficient and Austria in 10th both of which use a similar system, Belgium was ranked 8th. So I would consider it a fair comparison
The play-offs were introduced in the Netherlands in 2005, Through play-offs, numbers 2 to 5 played for a ticket in the preliminary round of the Champions League, numbers 6 to 9 for a ticket in the UEFA Cup and numbers 10 to 13 for a place in the Intertoto Cup. This changed. Number one goes to the Champions League. The qnumber two get a ticket for the preliminary round of the Champions League. The number three get a ticket for the Europa League. The winner of the national cup also receives a ticket for the Europa League. Only the numbers four to seven play in a knockout system for a ticket in the European Conference League. The last team is relegated and two clubs at the bottom of the league play a play-off against two clubs from the second division.
There is some logic behind the halving of the points... in the Champions' Play-Offs (PO 1) you play against your direct rivals, against the 5 other best teams in the league making these games worth double then the regular season makes sense... (If you look at it you get only 1,5pts for a win in the regular season and 3 in the play-offs) Ofcourse this rule was implemented solely for the drama and closer competition (more TV money) but I like the system actually...
It produced the greatest final day finale in history though, when 3 clubs could be crowned champions on the final day: Union SG, Racing Genk, and Royal Antwerp, with Antwerp winning it.
You forgot the reason for changing the regual League. In the past the managers from some teams played their weaker team in Europe (Champions league and Europa League) so they would have their most important players rested and ready for competition games. This let to Belgium teams losing a lot more to team that where weaker on paper. And losing coefficient ranking. Getting first place in Champions League was almost completely gone. So they decided the highlight of the season should be in the end of the season.
European tickets in general are kinda wild in Belgium. There are 5 teams that get to play European football in total. 1) The winner of the cup is guaranteed European Football 2) The winner of the regular league (first 30 games before playoffs) is also guaranteed European Football 3) The champion after playoffs is guaranteed European football 4) The second place after playoffs is guaranteed European football If any team manages to get multiple of these European tickets (like USG who won the cup, finished first in the regular season and finished second after playoffs, securing 3 tickets total) then the lowest value European tickets will trickle down to the other teams in playoff 1 in order that they finished. 5) the winner of the last ticket for European football will be decided in a game between the winner of playoff 2 and the highest placed team from playoff 1 that hasn't secured a ticket in other ways yet (in this case that was 5th place Genk after 3rd and 4th place got the 'extra' tickets that USG managed to acquire). If you lose the cup then its tough luck, in the past you used to be able to get European football if the winner got a better ticket in the competition but under the current system its all or nothing in the cup final.
The total win tie breaker in the regular competition has been there for a very long time, it was already there in the 1980s. The rest of this madness has been invented around the 2010s to make the Belgian football competition more competitive. Since then it has been revamped a few times resulting in - according to good Belgian tradition - more and more rules so it becomes totally absurd. The first version of the play-offs was actually crazier than this. I don't recall the details anymore, but a team that were second last in the competition could still qualify for Europe via play-offs.
Does USG still get something as the normal season champions like Canada where the Supporters’ Shield is awarded to the team in 1st place after the normal season ended and before the playoffs begin?
I’m from Belgium and I think it’s an amazing system. It just gives other teams a chance to make that last titlerun and it gives us fans a lot of entertainment.
I'm actually a huge fan of the cutting in half of the points. What it essentially does is make the games in the playoffs twice as important, which makes sense in my opinion, given that these are the most difficult matches against the other good teams of the league. How I look at it is as a half cup tournament: you first play a group stage (eventhough it is a group of 30) to qualify for the "knockouts" (the playoffs) BUT if you performed really well in the group stage, you actually get a head start against the rest. I honestly think it's pretty fair and just how you only need 2 (or even just 1) bad performances to be knocked out of the UCL, not playing well in the important matches can cost you the title here as well
THAT DUDE IS AMAZING, him and Kofie are so cool. Their channel, secret base, is a huge inspiration (AND Jon Bois created scorigami, the greatest sports stat ever made)
@@DagnalDiagonal Yeah I've watched Jon Bois videos for years and years. "The Dumbest Boy Alive" will forever be a favorite :D Good luck with the channel. Love the quick/subtle jokes. You're doing great.
with this format the best clubs play a last time against eachaother, so you have a lot of fun matches at the end of the season. It also makes the league so much more exciting. You will never have situation like leverkusen in Germany, where they are champions while they still need to play a lot of matches.
But you have to know that Club Bruges, this years champions has been against this ridiculous system for years now and wants to get rid of it but all the other top teams refuse to, so that we are now taking advantage of it in such a way is actually quite sweet 😄
I imagine the reason they cut the points in half is because a bunch of those points were gained against lower level clubs. The league probably wants the championship playoffs to hold more weight because it's against tougher competitions, whoever plays best amongst the best 6 clubs is most indicative as to who the best team is. I understand alot of fans from Belgium don't like the format. But speaking as an outsider, this unique format makes the Belgian league stand out from amongst the rest of the European leagues and it interests me.
As a Belgian who doesn't watch soccer at all it was interesting to get to know this. P.S. the G in Gent is pronounced as the G in Gear and the G in Genk is kinda pronounced as the H from the word Hate :)
To be completely fair, club Bruges board was against those rules from the beginning, you could easily assume we’re favorable to the playoffs because we won 2 titles in the last 3 years but no, every year our president has made a statement about the unfairness of cutting points in half and about competitiveness during the period you’re supposed to battle for European cups. They’re (all 30 professional clubs) discussing rn about deleting the points division but I wouldn’t be too happy about that, it wouldn’t surprise me if they create another weird format lol… they published a first proposal and unsurprisingly, it’s weird: title playoffs are normal, top4 battling without points division, UECL playoffs in a NBA playoffs format (bracket) and the two worst teams of the regular phase are just relegated without playoffs. And one last thing, it’s wrong to assume one team or another would have got this or this without the playoffs, clubs are aware about playoffs before the season starts so they are doing a preseason based on that, and it’s not because you’ve got 19 pts ahead of everyone that you would have been champion without playoffs. Big teams react to it differently because they feel they will get a spot in title playoffs anyways and that every game in the regular phase is worth 1.5 pts so it’s not a biggie if you’re 10 pts behind.
As a Belgian I can tell you: Yeah, everybody hates the system. The only ones really wanting to keep the system in place are the organizers and clubs who have seen massive profits from this system. Because obviously more people pay attention to the matches in the highest tier cutoff group and these matches obviously have the most money/ads involved. This whereas the lower you go in the first class division ranking, the less money is left on the table - A lot of lower ranked teams have to fight for table scraps on that end. One detail: 8:51: That is never going to happen. There was a LOT of riot police present at the city derby of Club vs Cercle - specifically because while Club Brugge usually wins these derbies, Cercle won the last city derby - much to the chagrin of the MANY hooligans of Club Brugge. So everybody was walking on egg shells on that final match day. If Cercle would've won, Club would've missed out on the title... and there would've been riots in Bruges...
Going to be honest, I don't really have a big problem with the play-offs, but my biggest problem is with the dividing of the points. That makes a win in the regular season worth less than in the play-offs. So if your team dips in the regular season, it's less punishing than dipping in the play-offs.
It's not too dissimilar to many other leagues around Europe. Tie breaker rules aren't that complex, although rounding the points is a bit useless if you're then going to remove the extra half point to determine tie breakers (the only reason to do this is to have the table look nice and not display any half points even if in effect they do exist). Sorting by wins instead of goal difference or head to head is unusual but not complicated. Even offering a qualifying spot to teams in a lower group after the split is not unusual, even if IMO very unfair. At least the group competing for it is the ECL group in Belgium, whereas many other leagues still offer this spot to a club in the relegation group ahead of the teams finishing bottom of the championship group
So sometimes at night, when I want to fall asleep to the TV on the couch, I throw on ESPN+ and put on an archived match....if I do the Belgian league, 100% of every match I've watched was always bat shit insane. Like, penalty in the first 10 minutes, red card in the 15th, both sides score within the next ten minutes, etc. etc. etc....I've probably seen maybe two dozen Belgian league matches and every single one was complete anarchy.
Honestly this is a cool solution for the problem many lesser leagues have, not performing well in european competition because domestic competition just sucks and puts down the top teams form, this way the best teams play each other more and to me the final groups have a strong knockout stage vibe to them with how important each game is and how radically it changes the standings. Maybe this specific solution to that problem lesser leagues face isn't the best one but it is interesting at the very least.
I'm from Belgium and I don’t understand our competition system. But you better had shown pictures of the 22/23 season. Because my club won both the title and cup.
There is only one thing worse than halving the points going into Play Offs and that is retaining the points when going into Play Offs. Of course, that option now is on the table of our pro league.
I am a belgian and am a fan of the system. The points cut in half is kinds weird tbh. But imagen a scenario were the premier league was decided between the big six because they have to play againt eachother. That would be dope. Also the relegation is much more interesting because the worst teams need to play eachother. Basiclly everyone fights againts a team of the same strenght to decide the future of their club.
You be happy to know they decided to change it again, there will be 16 teams same as before and playoffs with 4 teams without halving the points. Not next season but the season after it will start
I believe it was implemented to have the top teams play against each other more often, which would strengthen them and the make them be more competitive in Europe. When the Dutch clubs were doing really bad in Europe last decade and the Belgian clubs were doing better, there were discussions of implementing this system in the Dutch league. Fortunately they didn't. Another serious option, which actually came relatively close to being realised, was combining the Dutch and Belgian leagues. However, the last couple of years the Dutch teams, and coefficient, have completely overtaken the Belgian ones.
I don't know what you smoke dude, but the Dutch coefficient was always a lot higher than the Belgian ones; maybe for the one odd season as an exception.
* Yes, rounding the points and then having it be the first tie breaker is incredibly stupid. They do it to make the standings tables look nice and so they can pretend it's a normal league, but then every single year we need to go look up who exactly had half a point added to their total and it's incredibly confusing. Just show the decimal points! @%#@$% Ugh. Funnily enough, it's actually Club Brugge (who profited massively this year) who's most vocally against halving the points for the play-offs. Genk en Gent are the most in favour because they think it makes it easier for them to win a championship on a fluke. * The reason for the first tie breaker being the standings after the regular season is because people feel that if you have half your lead taken away it would be incredibly unfair if you were then beaten on some other tie breaker. This makes sense and literally everybody was in favour of this change. * The #22 who was offside in the last game not only did touch the ball, he was literally the guy who scored the goal. * Genk en Gent had their game for the last European ticket today and Gent did win, lol.
If I'm right, up until couple years ago there were a second division teams joining playoffs and had a chance to go to European competitions through league 😂 I remember my friend and I spent good 3-4 hours and full notebook on trying to realise how the system works
This is almost entirely how the Romanian league works too, literally with the only exception being that we have no "ECL playoff group", just a top 6 group and a bottom 10 relegation one. (and the bottom 10 only play 1-leg ties after the regular season) Besides that, almost everything is the same as in the Belgian league - it shows that this guy is unfamiliar with the dumb extra rules of smaller leagues like ours. (I think the Greek league, which PAOK won this year, also has a very similar format)
Unlike most Belgians, and despite being an Anderlecht fan, I'm still mostly in favor of the league format. It actually makes sense when you consider the reasons behind it: playoffs were added to ensure tension until the last day of the season and to have more matches between the top teams. Not only would these generate more ticket sales, they would also gain more experience against tougher opposition and in the long term benefit from that in the European leagues. Where in a distant past the league was dominated by 2,3 teams, there is now objectively more competition at the top. And Belgian teams are doing pretty well in Europe lately, over the last 2 seasons with only 5 representatives they scored the most points after the big 4 and nearly tied with France, moving up to 8th place in the ranking and quickly catching up to Portugal and Netherlands. Can't be proven, but for me that's a long term consequence of the league format. The halving of the points is the most controversial, but if full points were kept then teams in 5th and 6th position could already have nothing to win when the playoff starts. Everyone knows the rules in advance, it means the regular season you just need to stay close enough to the top, and then in the playoffs you really need to shine. That is exactly what Brugge did, obviously helped by Union suddenly failing under pressure and Anderlecht having some injuries and not getting enough points in their away games. And the tie breakers are compensating a bit for the devaluation of the regular season.
The playoffs are some weird format but they can make the title fight so damn exciting. Just so u know, there is already an offer to change the format without the lowering of the points
Something that is definitely worth mentioning: most clubs have always voted in favour of this system, including Union. However, Club Brugge has always opposed this system, even though they're the club that has benefited the most from it.
As a belgian football fan. The league is fucked. The playoff system is so useless. Just play the regular season and be done with it. Note the playoff system gave my team (Gent) european football next season eventhough we finished 7th but still i'd rather be 7th and no play off system than playoffs and 7th place can go to europe.
I love the summary in the end😂 Crazy that they lose half of their points. So let’s say a team got 49 points before match nr. 30 they should go all in for a win becouse they get 25 points regardless if they lose or draw
Gent fan here (not Genk). i think it's a great system. Each year we mis play off 1 by the slightest of margins and then we just dominate play-off 2 and win the match for european footbal every year. 7th place every team, european footbal 5/6 times now. But i also like it because the play-off 1 system makes it so that there is still everything to play for and the 'best 6 teams' play each other. so the play-offs actually matter.
to be fair , having a play offs with the top ranked clubs to fight over the titel is not such a crazy idea on its own; in fact its standard in alot of other sports aswel , only thing thats bunkers is that the points get halved . But this format has been contested by many years by the clubs and managers aswel so they recently voted for a total new system . next year its stil the same but the season after it it all changes to a playoff system with the top 4 battle for the titel and NO points reductions ( this way its impossible to stil become champions if u start the playoffs with 20 pnts below 1st place ) . the rest of the format i have not yet looked into to give u a full overview ( 2nd playoffs and relegation playoffs ; if thats even stil a thing as i think it wil be last 2 relegation and top 2 of 2nd devision promoted ) . But in the end if ur Club Brugge and u get 26 points out of 30 to be earned against ur direct rivals for the titel ; u can hardly call that unfair even tho it is in some way :p
Nothing has been decided yet that was a proposal which needs to be voted on and have a 2/3 majority by the professional clubs. The eventual format ussualy differs a lot from the inital proposal due to the smaller teams bundling up their votes for something they agreed upon internally. The smaller teams have historically been pro halving of the points.
The halving is scraped starting from next season. Emagine at the end of the bpl a new tournement with only the top 6 its amazing and adres an extra edge to the title. No way a dominence like city’s would be possible!
The Austrian Bundesliga is almost the same...not exactly 1:1 the same but very similar. They have just 12 clubs in their top tier League so they have just 2 POs = 1-6 + 7-12 instead of 3 like Belgium with their 16 clubs. But also for the PO the points of the main-round are then divided in half and rounded up and all that other jazz like total wins before goal difference... After those POs are finished = 10 rounds the winner of PO I is League Champion and the last ranked of PO II gets religated and the first + second ranked of PO II are then playing one last final match for who is playing at the very end for the European Conference spot against the holder of that spot of PO I for the actual participation in the Conference League which is then played in 2 matches = 1 at home + 1 away in order to earn that spot.
Luckily they proposed a new format for the 25-26 season, where everyone in the championship playoff has a chance to play european and the 50 percent rule is gone. Coming from a happy anderlecht supporter that feels for the unjustness of Union not winning after being 19 points ahead of Brugge at the end of the regular season.
i don't watch the football here in belgium, but i noticed that the last few seasons seem to be a bit more exciting. that being said. last i heard the clubs sat togheter about the 'rules' and they didn't change anything. so i geuss they are okay with this setup because it generates money. and really how many people gonna complain if the best clubs fight it out for the title. while the bottom clubs fight it out to stay in the top league.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
when your own fans of the league complain about its complication, you know your league is complicated
liga mx as well, trash league system as well that’s why i only watch playoff matches anymore and that’s it
That's Belgium.....Complicated!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
it's not that complicated, it just doesn't make sense why our league is like this
I'm not against it
its not complicated, its shit because like this year , a team that didn't deserve the title won it
As a Belgian myself I don’t like the play off system but let me tell you those final days are always so exiting
I like the playoff system. But I think overall it is a massiv disadvantage to other european leagues because we play much more games per season. So we keep losing in international tournaments because other players have more rest
@@LeBabo47 , not so true as you see the Premier League, LaLiga....So many teams, several differents cups.....
They play many many matches....The secret is to have a wide range of players and ....use them when needed....
To my eyes, the play-off system adds some thrill and forces the teams to be fit at the right moment....😉
@@johnminer007 I would basically only give it to premier league, they have a tough calender too. And you can see them underperform in UCL too... City, Arsenal both bottled UCL, and also the "smaller" teams didn't really perform in europa league and conference league...
@@LeBabo47 , yes, maybe, but they are anyway present till the 1/4 finals at least, and, on our side, the results in Europe became better after the P.O system...Difficult to know what is better, in fact....
@@LeBabo47 Belgian teams has actually had their best European year this season and last season since the glorious 80s, they actually can focus more on the group stage during the first half of the year, which brings many points to the UEFA coefficient
As a Belgian, this goes perfectly in line with how the rest of Belgium is organised. Make it as complicated as possible so the common folk wont know what's really going on, whilst politicians and industry reap the rewards.
And I thought the US and Canada were fucked up...
True
Belgians love to make things difficult, especially when it benefits them. I no longer follow Belgian football, the best players play abroad.
Wat ben jij zuur!
@@appletree13I would argue that Belgium is a much better country to live in than the US or Canada right now. Yes our political system is complicated but if you learn a bit about it you find out there's usually a pretty good reason behind all these complications.
Belgium scores well in a lot of metrics and most Belgians enjoy a pretty luxurious life with there being a large middle class, a poverty rate that's been decreasing for a long time and great protections for the socially vulerable like access to universal, affordable healthcare and indexed wages.
On top of that there's great food, lots of history and a pretty unique culture.d
The weather sucks though.
As an USG fan, I can confirm we keep bottling the league every year. 2 years ago by finishing 1st in the normal phase and then second after playoffs, then last year being 1st 10 minutes before the end of the league but ending up 3rd, and now this year once again being 1st in the normal phase and 2nd after playoffs ... Next year will be the year (maybe) (hopefully) (nah we will bottle it once again)
As an antwerp fan, I'm starting to think it's quite sad for Union
I feel for you, it's so stupid you've basically won the league 3 times now
KRC Genk fan here, Union we’re sorry for you, we really are
cutting the points in half seem ridiculous to me though because USG loses 35pts overall and Club Brugge only 25pts, so basically means 10pts from the first part of the season just were all for nothing.
@@garystill1308 20 points actually, a massive amount
Important to know. Club Brugge is one of the only teams (directors and fans) who were against this rules from the beginning. The president repeated this after the title. He hoped that other teams would finally be convinced now.
Not true, Brugge was one of the founders, together with Anderlecht , Genk and Gent.
It was still the old board, in 2010 ( after one season ) there was already a vote to go back but they didnt want to :
Quote :
AA Gent, Anderlecht, Club Brugge en Racing Genk wilden liever de huidige opzet behouden. Uiteindelijk stemden de twaalf andere clubs voor een terugkeer naar het vroegere systeem
@@Debeul true. the old board agreed. My bad. The new board was against the pointreduction from the start.
@@Debeul source? Because our president has been saying for 5-6 years that we want the play-offs gone.
@@Debeul That was before Verhaeghe took charge. He always opposed it
Brugge fans and short term memory , name a better duo
Union coming from the 2nd division and finishing 1st, tied 1st and 1st again and then chocking the play-offs 3 times is heartbreak man.
omg the pronunciation i'm crying 😂😂
bro JENK was killing me
I SAW 5 DIFFERENT PRONUNCIATIONS, I'M SORRY
@@DagnalDiagonal no worries haha. It was funny
@@DagnalDiagonal Not your fault man. English doesn't use our G's, so they're kinda hard to explain.
In Romania is almost the same format. 16 teams, 30 games championship format. The difference is that we have two groups in the second part of the season: PLAYOFF (6 teams)and PLAYOUT (10 teams) with the points also being cut in halt... And the weirdest part is European leagues qualification rules...
The winner of playoff (which is considered the championship winner) Goes only in the first qualification round of UCL; The runner-up goes in the qualification round for Conference league (not even UEL) and 3rd team in championship play a Conference League playoff with the 3rd team in relegation round. Also the winner and the runner-up of Relegation round goes in the Conference League qualifications. And the cup winner goes to Europa League qualifications (Which, in this season, was a second division team who doesn't have promotion rights because is own by a public organization and not a private one...) And with all this...last season, we didn't have any team in european competitions💀
Maybe I am a bit wrong 'cause I am not 100% sure if is exactly how I said, but is something like this... (Now is weirder with the new UCL format)
I wish that in one day we will have 18 or 20 teams in the 1st division and the normal home/away format
Exact
You got the conference league playoffs wrong. Top 2 teams in the relegation round("playout") go to the playoff, in a one-off game hosted by the team that finished above. Then, the winner goes on an away day to the 3rd placed team in in the championship round("playoff"), for the final round of this Conference League playoff. The winner goes to the 2nd qualification round of the Conference League.
This year, the top spot in the relegation round was taken by a team without a UEFA license, thus the 2nd and 3rd spots went to this playoff instead...
I hate our system so much. Ever since it started, I stopped watching our championship. It's absolutely abnormal and unfair that we have to play 100 derbies every year and that points get cut in half. Whoever came up with the system should be removed from FRF or LPF or wherever. All of them should be removed. And what was their promise with this system? We'll be more competitive in Europe: we're not more competitive are we? When was the last time we had a team in the European spring? I remember it happening quite a few times before this system. What about since the introduction of the system?
Lasă-mă în plm cu cacatul nostru de ligă , după ce ca ai nostrii joaca un football de câmp mai au și dublat meciurile sa scoată mai multi bani , dar parca mai rau au facut cu formatul asta 😂😂
8:18 the match ended 0-1 for Gent. Which means that Gent is placed for the 2nd qualifier round of the Conference league.
Format is more than 10 years old...loved it every season. Exciting every time. All of us know the rules at the start of the season...so nothing unfair there
Everyone loved the format when Bruges lost two titles to it. Now that Bruges has won two titles thanks to it, it's a riot.
As a Belgian and an USG fan , I'm fed up with this format... It's so sad each and every year being literally first and BY FAR as well getting fkd every year is so unfair.
that was certainly a lot to take in, honestly the only thing I have problem with is completely changing the tiebreaker rules in the playoffs that is just unnecessary complication.
Yeah I agree, splitting the league and halfing the points is not that unusual, several European league do something similar. But having the standing after the 1st phase is dumb imo and almost feels like they admitting that it is unfair, so they give a small advantage back to the teams that were hit the worst by losing half their points
Well, it is more fair to the team that was ahead in the regular season.
I followed the competition when they didn't even have the playoff system
Just play against each team twice and that was is
I don't follow football matches anymore, but I really dislike the playoffs anyway
It is actually less insane than it used to be. Until a couple of years ago the 2nd division teams were also included in what is now the ECL group. Speaking of the second division: In 2020 this league was played in two separate halfs, similar to Mexiko, the winners of each half would play out the team to be promoted in a two legged tie. Unfortunately all professional sport was suspended in Belgium due to Covid before the second leg could be played, the end of this ban was scheduled for only a few days before the next season was supposed to begin. So the plan was to cram the second leg in that short period and I think that is what did happen but in case the game could not be played they came up with a plan B: The team that did best over both periods would have been promoted in this case. What makes this so weird is that that was team, which was very consistent over the whole season but failed to win either period, so that team wasn’t even in the play-off match and originally had no chance to get promoted at all.
I don’t think it works like that anymore and I got it from foreign sports media at the time, so if there are any inaccuracies feel free to correct me
It was introduced to improve the quality of the Belgian football: the top teams would play eachother more in this format. And it works, the quality has improved and as a spectator you get to see more interesting games. The biggest debate is about cutting the points in half. Even as a neutral spectator I feel bad for Union Saint-Giiloise. If feels unjust. But there's nothing wrong or weird about the format.
For me the big games have become boring as you see them so frequently. Brugge and Union for example played each other 6 times this year. It's overkill
There is only 1 reason this format was introduced : money. There are only 6 belgians who shoved this disastrous format down our throats: the presidents of the 6 biggest clubs... one of which is now bankrupt through fraud. Spectators, football fans, club supporters or players had no voice in the decision.
@@101jtag Money always plays a role no matter what, football isn't an exception. So let's not pretend your post is a big revelation. Apart from that it's a very bitter post. You must be really fun in the stands 💀
Money plays a big role in other countries too, yet no major league has adopted this silly play-off disaster, out of respect for the game.
@@101jtag cause they are already the strongest and will be for the simple reason that they have more money pumped into, bigger pool of football clubs and many more things.
Doesn't matter which smaller country we talk about, may it be Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Czechia, Hungary or whoever, they will 99,9% never get close to France, Italy, England, Germany, Spain. So they spice up their leagues format to hopefully spark some interest from outsiders or investors. (which is the whole point of them doing, more money, better infrastructure, youth academy programs etc to slightly close the gap)
as a belgian, a lot of people like the system because it gives another exciting few matches where every match is a final for every team... it gives more excitement for the fans and the thing is if you had a bad start of the season you can still have a chance, if you win the league (the first 30 matches) you still have to prove to yourself that you can beat the best of the league week in week out because thats what you have to do in the champions league next season if you win anyway
7:55 you may not realize it, but these images are pretty spot on for the actual city Antwerp.
also, to expand: Gent won the game against Genk, so are now into European football (10 years in a row!)
the Belgian FA has had several meetings since you posted this video, to change the format . proposals include dropping the halved points or going back to making common sense (dropping playoffs alltogether), but no one could agree, so they're sticking to this.
and to answer one question: they decided to halve the points, out of fear that one club might get into the play-offs with a substantial lead that would see the title decided before they play-off was halfway done.
The only thing I understood was that, you gotta win every match....
But look at this season: Club Bruges 21 wins, 7losses they got 1st place
Union 25 wins, 6 losses 2nd place
Ofcourse you have to win every match but (just to make it clear to you in case you didn't get it) this is ridiculous
@@EddyGojim those games arent all created equally, that’s why they’re called “playoffs”
@@TylerAven10 I know. I am a supporter of Anderlecht and the reply above was to show my frustration with the fact that Union, our neighbors, didn't get the title while they deserved it. After 30 regular season matches they had 19 points on Bruges, just let that sink in
@@EddyGojim Al wie niet springt dat is een ... .
@@EddyGojim We at Club Brugge has always been against the playoffs. But now that we heavily take advantage off it everyone is so against it. We had to shut up every year and accept that it is the way it is. Let that sink in.
Great video!! The Austrian Bundesliga is absolute madness as well haha
I might be minority here but I personally freaking loved this unqiue format. I would make a couple of changes here n there but overall, the idea behind it is amazing 👏
It is the league with the most suspense and tension tho, till the very last game
Its to increase the amount of competitive games. Through this format the stronger teams face each other 4 times instead of the usual 2 times. It was done in the hope of elevating the gameplay and make us more competitive in europe despite having less money. Given our coefficiency last couple of years has been on the rise. I would say it worked.
The league format has given us some of the most mental/dramatic final league days you would normally only see in movies. The tagline is 'unscripted drama' for a reason. I honestly like it a lot better than the boring leagues where a team (usually the same team) clinches the title with still a handful of games to play. But many people seem to think it's unfair to cut the points in half. The critics are probably going to get their way and the league is now considering to do away with the halving of the points for the play-offs. I predict that in a few years many of those critics will think back of the good ol' days of current league system.
I hate the halving of the points. Its unfair and every League winner because of that should come with an asterisk.
The Belgian competition is playing for peanuts in the first part of the season and in the end a team with less wins than the best team can become champions. Only in Belgium would they celebrate this kind of utter stupidity.
You're roasting the format, but it has given us the best final game days each year.
No fan of football can be a fan of play-offs. It's simply not fair
@@thomasf4605 It's unfair because club brugge overturned a 19 point deficit at the end of the regular season to win the league?
@@ericlamela371 yes and im a brugge fan so that says everything i think
@@thomasf4605how is it not fair? It's the same for everyone.
Btw life is not fair, where comes this thought from, that everything must always be fair? That's not real life 😂
@@thomasf4605 Exactly. I'm not Belgian (although my country, Romania, does have an almost identical system), but from Belgium I support Brugge, while from Romania, I support Steaua (who also won the title this year). Regardless of that: unfair is unfair, regardless whether my teams win or not.
A lot of people find the halving unjust and I understand their point of view however when we take the overall level of the league into consideration it makes sense.
1/ During these playoffs, the teams will have to get points against the best teams of the league which will make the teams good against stronger opposition emerge.
2/ It will bring pressure to the teams on top.
When you consider the European competition, the teams representing Belgium will need to play against strong teams rather than low block defensive ones and they will need to resist the pression of direct elimination matches.
I don't know if it was the initial purpose but it can make the clubs better on the European scene.
okay, this doesn't change that it's completely unfair.
fuck the pro league. all they care about is their fucking money. they shouldn't forget that football is nothing without the fans. boycott JPL.
The initial purpose was indeed to make Belgian clubs more competitive on the European scene. But it is a bit of a paradox. Belgian clubs got more competitive, but the playoff system has games every 3-4 days and is played in the same period as when the CL, Europa league or Conference are in the knock out rounds. Making it harder to compete in both the national and European leagues as fatigue sets in and Belgian clubs don't have the financial means to have two full squads of league worthy players (like PL teams)...
It's all in the wording. "Halving" makes it sounds like a disadvantage, while it's actually a huge advantage. I don't think there's a single play off system in any sports where you start with such a big advantage as keeping half your points of the regular competion. NBA goes to best of 7 where the regular season doesn't matter at all. In volleyball we start with points based on position of the regular competition. 1 gets 6 points, 2 5 points all the way down to 6 starting with 1 point.
Belgium teams making to a knockout stage is a win in my book. When it was only regular competition that was very rare.
Honestly, I adore the Belgian playoff system, I believe it strikes the perfect balance between a straight traditional league format and the MLS cup style playoff system.
I watched that Aldeweireld title winning goal live last year, it was absolute insanity and what made me such a big believer in this format.
People don’t like the halving of points, I get it because it’s not what people are used to, but the whole point is that playoff games are supposed to tangibly matter more than regular season games, and to me it’s incredible.
Traditional leagues are cool, so is the MLS Cup, but I think this is actually the best system that could be made to strike a middle ground balance providing benefit to the best regular season performers.
Also USG are becoming legendary bottlejobs 😭😭 3 straight years bottling the title
I don’t think it is unjust either. In the MLS play-offs or promotion play-offs, teams that did worse in the league can beat teams with a better record too an no one is complaining there that they have fewer wins, even if you include the play-off win. In Belgium the wins in the regular season at least give you some advantage and are not completely deleted as they are in an American play-off system.
But I think the tie breakers are unnecessarily complicated, you have to pull out multiple standings, remember how the points were halved etc. good old goal difference is better imo because it is always included in the current standings, making it as easy as possible. Also I feel like the ECL group must be really boring. They only play for one spot, to MAYBE play in the Conference League QUALIFIERS. The way to the actual Conference League is long, so there is a good chance that the winner of the ECL group won’t even reach it and even if: Belgium is regularly featured in the CL or EL, so how big is the interest in the ECL group really?
It's not just in Belgium. A lot of Eastern European countries have adopted it, including my own, and I absolutely hate it. I shouldn't have to play 100 derbies per year, points shouldn't be divided in half. There shouldn't be play off games to begin with. It should be simple: everyone plays everyone twice and the team with most points wins. I don't want the competition to be more "interesting" (I stopped watching altogether), I want it to be fair. If one team has 20 points in front, so be it, good for them, the other teams should have played better, better luck next season. Instead of dividing their advantage, to artificially raise tension. Who are the most successful countries? England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy. None of them have this dumb system. Why? Because the system doesn't do much. Money does. Attract investors, invest in youth/infrastructure, that's what raises the level, not mediocre teams playing more games against one another. Mediocre vs mediocre = mediocre, whether they play 2, 4 or 100 matches.
The Football Manager D. Trap... fun af nation to do a "build a nation"
If you think this is crazy then you should do a coverage of the US sports format. There's an insane amount of games during the regular season and it's just to determine who gets a spot in the play-offs and who gets home advantage. Other than that, it all starts at 0-0. Aside of that, there's no promotion or relegation. How insane is that???
I feel like a lot of these headaches could have been avoided if they had just gone "During the final bits of the season, wins are 6 points and ties are 2."
That would also display the intent better. "We would like the final bits of the season to still be competitive even if number 1 ran away with the season."
I like it! Do or die each year, incredible suspense. You need to be on top of your game in the playoffs or you are DONE.
As a Belgian Standard Liège fan,I am more worried that we might fold this season but still a great vid
Rouge, rouge est... notre maillot !
Rouge, rouge est... notre coeur !
Supporter du Standard depuis 25 ans.
As a Belgian,there is already a new format suggested 😂😂😂
And it's even worse
@@LuffyL-ch1ku no it's not; it"s better
How would the new format be? Do you have information?
There would be a 4 team Champions play off without the Points getting cut in half,2 teams relegated instead of the relegation play-offs and place 5-14 would play in a little knock-out playoff. The winner of that would play the 4th placed team in the Champions play off for the last ticket.For full explanation,I recommend Sporza or the Jupiler Pro League website
Club Brugge is, as one of the only teams, strongly against this format since day 1. And still are after winning the title. People complaining that we took advantage of it this year are crying about it. We did that for the last 14 years. Only that makes it 10x better. 💙🖤
Not true, Brugge was one of the founders, together with Anderlecht , Genk and Gent.
It was still the old board, in 2010 ( after one season ) there was already a vote to go back but they didnt want to :
Quote :
AA Gent, Anderlecht, Club Brugge en Racing Genk wilden liever de huidige opzet behouden. Uiteindelijk stemden de twaalf andere clubs voor een terugkeer naar het vroegere systeem
3:20 Doesn't the Austrian Bundesliga have something similar as well, where the top 6 clubs have their points halved and play again in a championship round to determine the winner of the league for the season?
Idk, but many coutries have this sistem
Who cares about the Austrian league?
He was talking about the major leagues.
@@Tobi-ln9xr Well in 2023 Scotland was ranked 9th by coefficient and Austria in 10th both of which use a similar system, Belgium was ranked 8th. So I would consider it a fair comparison
The play-offs were introduced in the Netherlands in 2005, Through play-offs, numbers 2 to 5 played for a ticket in the preliminary round of the Champions League, numbers 6 to 9 for a ticket in the UEFA Cup and numbers 10 to 13 for a place in the Intertoto Cup.
This changed.
Number one goes to the Champions League.
The qnumber two get a ticket for the preliminary round of the Champions League.
The number three get a ticket for the Europa League.
The winner of the national cup also receives a ticket for the Europa League.
Only the numbers four to seven play in a knockout system for a ticket in the European Conference League.
The last team is relegated and two clubs at the bottom of the league play a play-off against two clubs from the second division.
8:15 hey hey hey not everyone, they lost both matches against OHL #MassiveClub
There is some logic behind the halving of the points... in the Champions' Play-Offs (PO 1) you play against your direct rivals, against the 5 other best teams in the league making these games worth double then the regular season makes sense... (If you look at it you get only 1,5pts for a win in the regular season and 3 in the play-offs) Ofcourse this rule was implemented solely for the drama and closer competition (more TV money) but I like the system actually...
It produced the greatest final day finale in history though, when 3 clubs could be crowned champions on the final day: Union SG, Racing Genk, and Royal Antwerp, with Antwerp winning it.
You forgot the reason for changing the regual League. In the past the managers from some teams played their weaker team in Europe (Champions league and Europa League) so they would have their most important players rested and ready for competition games. This let to Belgium teams losing a lot more to team that where weaker on paper.
And losing coefficient ranking. Getting first place in Champions League was almost completely gone. So they decided the highlight of the season should be in the end of the season.
European tickets in general are kinda wild in Belgium. There are 5 teams that get to play European football in total.
1) The winner of the cup is guaranteed European Football
2) The winner of the regular league (first 30 games before playoffs) is also guaranteed European Football
3) The champion after playoffs is guaranteed European football
4) The second place after playoffs is guaranteed European football
If any team manages to get multiple of these European tickets (like USG who won the cup, finished first in the regular season and finished second after playoffs, securing 3 tickets total) then the lowest value European tickets will trickle down to the other teams in playoff 1 in order that they finished.
5) the winner of the last ticket for European football will be decided in a game between the winner of playoff 2 and the highest placed team from playoff 1 that hasn't secured a ticket in other ways yet (in this case that was 5th place Genk after 3rd and 4th place got the 'extra' tickets that USG managed to acquire).
If you lose the cup then its tough luck, in the past you used to be able to get European football if the winner got a better ticket in the competition but under the current system its all or nothing in the cup final.
The total win tie breaker in the regular competition has been there for a very long time, it was already there in the 1980s.
The rest of this madness has been invented around the 2010s to make the Belgian football competition more competitive. Since then it has been revamped a few times resulting in - according to good Belgian tradition - more and more rules so it becomes totally absurd.
The first version of the play-offs was actually crazier than this. I don't recall the details anymore, but a team that were second last in the competition could still qualify for Europe via play-offs.
Does USG still get something as the normal season champions like Canada where the Supporters’ Shield is awarded to the team in 1st place after the normal season ended and before the playoffs begin?
I like the format a lot its sop exciting!You have no idea
I'd use the word annoying, not exciting.
I’m from Belgium and I think it’s an amazing system. It just gives other teams a chance to make that last titlerun and it gives us fans a lot of entertainment.
i started an online FM24 save (Myself as Anderlecht, others as Cub Brugge and Antwerp) and honestly its so fun. Most fun league I have EVER done.
I'm actually a huge fan of the cutting in half of the points. What it essentially does is make the games in the playoffs twice as important, which makes sense in my opinion, given that these are the most difficult matches against the other good teams of the league. How I look at it is as a half cup tournament: you first play a group stage (eventhough it is a group of 30) to qualify for the "knockouts" (the playoffs) BUT if you performed really well in the group stage, you actually get a head start against the rest. I honestly think it's pretty fair and just how you only need 2 (or even just 1) bad performances to be knocked out of the UCL, not playing well in the important matches can cost you the title here as well
Here after Gent won that play off game against Genk en got european football next season
This should be a Jon Bois video
THAT DUDE IS AMAZING, him and Kofie are so cool. Their channel, secret base, is a huge inspiration (AND Jon Bois created scorigami, the greatest sports stat ever made)
@@DagnalDiagonal Yeah I've watched Jon Bois videos for years and years. "The Dumbest Boy Alive" will forever be a favorite :D
Good luck with the channel. Love the quick/subtle jokes. You're doing great.
with this format the best clubs play a last time against eachaother, so you have a lot of fun matches at the end of the season. It also makes the league so much more exciting. You will never have situation like leverkusen in Germany, where they are champions while they still need to play a lot of matches.
3:00 I’m not going to call you dad Jeff
But you have to know that Club Bruges, this years champions has been against this ridiculous system for years now and wants to get rid of it but all the other top teams refuse to, so that we are now taking advantage of it in such a way is actually quite sweet 😄
I'm a Belgian watching the Premier League and I've almost lost my mind watching your explanations.
Thanks 😂
Please look up how to say team names
is nog moeilijk denkk als je geen nl kunt
shit pissed me off more than it should've
The pronunciation of Gent and Genk depends on whether it’s Dutch or French language.
@@geronimocochise2033 He pronounced the G as one would pronounce the word junk in English which would be wrong in either case.
I imagine the reason they cut the points in half is because a bunch of those points were gained against lower level clubs. The league probably wants the championship playoffs to hold more weight because it's against tougher competitions, whoever plays best amongst the best 6 clubs is most indicative as to who the best team is.
I understand alot of fans from Belgium don't like the format. But speaking as an outsider, this unique format makes the Belgian league stand out from amongst the rest of the European leagues and it interests me.
i think i suffered three strokes during this video and i did not understand shit. good video though 10/10
HES NOT WRONG THO🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
As a Belgian who doesn't watch soccer at all it was interesting to get to know this. P.S. the G in Gent is pronounced as the G in Gear and the G in Genk is kinda pronounced as the H from the word Hate :)
dude you are so funny hahaha. really enjoyed it
The summary at the end was not chaotic enough to be a descent summary.
In the Czech Republic we have a similar format, but the points are not halved.
Some people like it but I’d say more than half don’t
To be completely fair, club Bruges board was against those rules from the beginning, you could easily assume we’re favorable to the playoffs because we won 2 titles in the last 3 years but no, every year our president has made a statement about the unfairness of cutting points in half and about competitiveness during the period you’re supposed to battle for European cups.
They’re (all 30 professional clubs) discussing rn about deleting the points division but I wouldn’t be too happy about that, it wouldn’t surprise me if they create another weird format lol… they published a first proposal and unsurprisingly, it’s weird: title playoffs are normal, top4 battling without points division, UECL playoffs in a NBA playoffs format (bracket) and the two worst teams of the regular phase are just relegated without playoffs.
And one last thing, it’s wrong to assume one team or another would have got this or this without the playoffs, clubs are aware about playoffs before the season starts so they are doing a preseason based on that, and it’s not because you’ve got 19 pts ahead of everyone that you would have been champion without playoffs. Big teams react to it differently because they feel they will get a spot in title playoffs anyways and that every game in the regular phase is worth 1.5 pts so it’s not a biggie if you’re 10 pts behind.
As a Belgian I can tell you: Yeah, everybody hates the system. The only ones really wanting to keep the system in place are the organizers and clubs who have seen massive profits from this system. Because obviously more people pay attention to the matches in the highest tier cutoff group and these matches obviously have the most money/ads involved.
This whereas the lower you go in the first class division ranking, the less money is left on the table - A lot of lower ranked teams have to fight for table scraps on that end.
One detail: 8:51: That is never going to happen. There was a LOT of riot police present at the city derby of Club vs Cercle - specifically because while Club Brugge usually wins these derbies, Cercle won the last city derby - much to the chagrin of the MANY hooligans of Club Brugge. So everybody was walking on egg shells on that final match day. If Cercle would've won, Club would've missed out on the title... and there would've been riots in Bruges...
Going to be honest, I don't really have a big problem with the play-offs, but my biggest problem is with the dividing of the points. That makes a win in the regular season worth less than in the play-offs. So if your team dips in the regular season, it's less punishing than dipping in the play-offs.
Feels like a video for people who don't normally watch football
I like the idea of the best teams playing in a sub group at the end of the season. But cutting the points in half is just stupid.
Finely someone said something about it I’m a fan of last season champions rafc
Those league organizer were on 1 thing... money !
Together with the politicians & most of the industry.
It's not too dissimilar to many other leagues around Europe. Tie breaker rules aren't that complex, although rounding the points is a bit useless if you're then going to remove the extra half point to determine tie breakers (the only reason to do this is to have the table look nice and not display any half points even if in effect they do exist). Sorting by wins instead of goal difference or head to head is unusual but not complicated. Even offering a qualifying spot to teams in a lower group after the split is not unusual, even if IMO very unfair. At least the group competing for it is the ECL group in Belgium, whereas many other leagues still offer this spot to a club in the relegation group ahead of the teams finishing bottom of the championship group
So sometimes at night, when I want to fall asleep to the TV on the couch, I throw on ESPN+ and put on an archived match....if I do the Belgian league, 100% of every match I've watched was always bat shit insane. Like, penalty in the first 10 minutes, red card in the 15th, both sides score within the next ten minutes, etc. etc. etc....I've probably seen maybe two dozen Belgian league matches and every single one was complete anarchy.
Honestly this is a cool solution for the problem many lesser leagues have, not performing well in european competition because domestic competition just sucks and puts down the top teams form, this way the best teams play each other more and to me the final groups have a strong knockout stage vibe to them with how important each game is and how radically it changes the standings. Maybe this specific solution to that problem lesser leagues face isn't the best one but it is interesting at the very least.
I'm from Belgium and I don’t understand our competition system. But you better had shown pictures of the 22/23 season. Because my club won both the title and cup.
There is only one thing worse than halving the points going into Play Offs and that is retaining the points when going into Play Offs. Of course, that option now is on the table of our pro league.
These rules are fun. My favorite FM save by far was in the Belgian leagues.
I am a belgian and am a fan of the system. The points cut in half is kinds weird tbh. But imagen a scenario were the premier league was decided between the big six because they have to play againt eachother. That would be dope. Also the relegation is much more interesting because the worst teams need to play eachother. Basiclly everyone fights againts a team of the same strenght to decide the future of their club.
You be happy to know they decided to change it again, there will be 16 teams same as before and playoffs with 4 teams without halving the points. Not next season but the season after it will start
I believe it was implemented to have the top teams play against each other more often, which would strengthen them and the make them be more competitive in Europe.
When the Dutch clubs were doing really bad in Europe last decade and the Belgian clubs were doing better, there were discussions of implementing this system in the Dutch league. Fortunately they didn't. Another serious option, which actually came relatively close to being realised, was combining the Dutch and Belgian leagues. However, the last couple of years the Dutch teams, and coefficient, have completely overtaken the Belgian ones.
I don't know what you smoke dude, but the Dutch coefficient was always a lot higher than the Belgian ones; maybe for the one odd season as an exception.
* Yes, rounding the points and then having it be the first tie breaker is incredibly stupid. They do it to make the standings tables look nice and so they can pretend it's a normal league, but then every single year we need to go look up who exactly had half a point added to their total and it's incredibly confusing. Just show the decimal points! @%#@$% Ugh.
Funnily enough, it's actually Club Brugge (who profited massively this year) who's most vocally against halving the points for the play-offs. Genk en Gent are the most in favour because they think it makes it easier for them to win a championship on a fluke.
* The reason for the first tie breaker being the standings after the regular season is because people feel that if you have half your lead taken away it would be incredibly unfair if you were then beaten on some other tie breaker. This makes sense and literally everybody was in favour of this change.
* The #22 who was offside in the last game not only did touch the ball, he was literally the guy who scored the goal.
* Genk en Gent had their game for the last European ticket today and Gent did win, lol.
If I'm right, up until couple years ago there were a second division teams joining playoffs and had a chance to go to European competitions through league 😂 I remember my friend and I spent good 3-4 hours and full notebook on trying to realise how the system works
This is almost entirely how the Romanian league works too, literally with the only exception being that we have no "ECL playoff group", just a top 6 group and a bottom 10 relegation one. (and the bottom 10 only play 1-leg ties after the regular season)
Besides that, almost everything is the same as in the Belgian league - it shows that this guy is unfamiliar with the dumb extra rules of smaller leagues like ours. (I think the Greek league, which PAOK won this year, also has a very similar format)
Give them time and the morons will make it even more complicated.
Unlike most Belgians, and despite being an Anderlecht fan, I'm still mostly in favor of the league format. It actually makes sense when you consider the reasons behind it: playoffs were added to ensure tension until the last day of the season and to have more matches between the top teams. Not only would these generate more ticket sales, they would also gain more experience against tougher opposition and in the long term benefit from that in the European leagues. Where in a distant past the league was dominated by 2,3 teams, there is now objectively more competition at the top. And Belgian teams are doing pretty well in Europe lately, over the last 2 seasons with only 5 representatives they scored the most points after the big 4 and nearly tied with France, moving up to 8th place in the ranking and quickly catching up to Portugal and Netherlands. Can't be proven, but for me that's a long term consequence of the league format. The halving of the points is the most controversial, but if full points were kept then teams in 5th and 6th position could already have nothing to win when the playoff starts. Everyone knows the rules in advance, it means the regular season you just need to stay close enough to the top, and then in the playoffs you really need to shine. That is exactly what Brugge did, obviously helped by Union suddenly failing under pressure and Anderlecht having some injuries and not getting enough points in their away games. And the tie breakers are compensating a bit for the devaluation of the regular season.
godverdomme don't get me started.
The playoffs are some weird format but they can make the title fight so damn exciting. Just so u know, there is already an offer to change the format without the lowering of the points
it's complicated but also competitive imo
Something that is definitely worth mentioning: most clubs have always voted in favour of this system, including Union. However, Club Brugge has always opposed this system, even though they're the club that has benefited the most from it.
As a belgian football fan. The league is fucked. The playoff system is so useless. Just play the regular season and be done with it. Note the playoff system gave my team (Gent) european football next season eventhough we finished 7th but still i'd rather be 7th and no play off system than playoffs and 7th place can go to europe.
Romanian football league also uses the same system of play-off and relegation league that is split after the points are cut in half.
Club Broezj, union saint zjaliewa, zjenk, zjent. i discovered some new teams...
Just opened youtube and saw you uploaded. It's a good day.
I love the summary in the end😂 Crazy that they lose half of their points. So let’s say a team got 49 points before match nr. 30 they should go all in for a win becouse they get 25 points regardless if they lose or draw
Can you cover the A-league next?😅
I hate this play off system. The last 3 season, the team that would have been ahead without the halving of points, wasn't actually crowned champion
I'm from Belgium and casually watch football. I still don't understand any of it even after you explained it
Gent fan here (not Genk). i think it's a great system. Each year we mis play off 1 by the slightest of margins and then we just dominate play-off 2 and win the match for european footbal every year. 7th place every team, european footbal 5/6 times now. But i also like it because the play-off 1 system makes it so that there is still everything to play for and the 'best 6 teams' play each other. so the play-offs actually matter.
to be fair , having a play offs with the top ranked clubs to fight over the titel is not such a crazy idea on its own; in fact its standard in alot of other sports aswel , only thing thats bunkers is that the points get halved . But this format has been contested by many years by the clubs and managers aswel so they recently voted for a total new system . next year its stil the same but the season after it it all changes to a playoff system with the top 4 battle for the titel and NO points reductions ( this way its impossible to stil become champions if u start the playoffs with 20 pnts below 1st place ) . the rest of the format i have not yet looked into to give u a full overview ( 2nd playoffs and relegation playoffs ; if thats even stil a thing as i think it wil be last 2 relegation and top 2 of 2nd devision promoted ) . But in the end if ur Club Brugge and u get 26 points out of 30 to be earned against ur direct rivals for the titel ; u can hardly call that unfair even tho it is in some way :p
Nothing has been decided yet that was a proposal which needs to be voted on and have a 2/3 majority by the professional clubs. The eventual format ussualy differs a lot from the inital proposal due to the smaller teams bundling up their votes for something they agreed upon internally. The smaller teams have historically been pro halving of the points.
The halving is scraped starting from next season. Emagine at the end of the bpl a new tournement with only the top 6 its amazing and adres an extra edge to the title. No way a dominence like city’s would be possible!
I’m from Belgium and everyone here hates it so much. It’s so unfair
From Romania (we have an almost identical system): I also hate it. Deeply hate it. I don't hate a lot of things, but I hate this playoff system.
Can't remember anyone complaining how unfair it was when Bruges lost two titles to this shit. But, oh right, it's only unfair when the underdog loses.
I'm not a fan of this system but to be fair ; since it came into play we had our biggest successes in Champions, Europa & Conference league
The Austrian Bundesliga is almost the same...not exactly 1:1 the same but very similar.
They have just 12 clubs in their top tier League so they have just 2 POs = 1-6 + 7-12 instead of 3 like Belgium with their 16 clubs.
But also for the PO the points of the main-round are then divided in half and rounded up and all that other jazz like total wins before goal difference...
After those POs are finished = 10 rounds the winner of PO I is League Champion and the last ranked of PO II gets religated and the first + second ranked of PO II are then playing one last final match for who is playing at the very end for the European Conference spot against the holder of that spot of PO I for the actual participation in the Conference League which is then played in 2 matches = 1 at home + 1 away in order to earn that spot.
Luckily they proposed a new format for the 25-26 season, where everyone in the championship playoff has a chance to play european and the 50 percent rule is gone. Coming from a happy anderlecht supporter that feels for the unjustness of Union not winning after being 19 points ahead of Brugge at the end of the regular season.
i don't watch the football here in belgium, but i noticed that the last few seasons seem to be a bit more exciting.
that being said.
last i heard the clubs sat togheter about the 'rules' and they didn't change anything.
so i geuss they are okay with this setup because it generates money. and really how many people gonna complain if the best clubs fight it out for the title. while the bottom clubs fight it out to stay in the top league.
Nice Duncan shirt! :) He's leaving Fiorentina soon tho :(