External links
- (in French) Belgian FA official website - Organisation of the provincial first divisions
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| Founded | 1904 |
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| Country | Belgium |
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Level on pyramid | 6 through 9 |
| Promotion to | Belgian Division 3 |
| Domestic cup(s) | Belgian Cup |
The Belgian Provincial leagues are the lower leagues for Belgian football. Until 2016, these were at levels 5-8 in the Belgian football league system however as part of the reform an extra level was created causing the provincial leagues to drop to levels 6-9. The provincial leagues are divided into 9 regional league systems (one for each province, but Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant are merged and contain also the football teams from the Brussels Capital Region). Each league system is itself divided into 4 levels (except for Luxembourg where there are only 3). The number of leagues at each level depends on the province, but every province must have only one league at the top level. The best teams from the 9 first divisions can promote to the Belgian Division 3, the fifth and lowest level in the national leagues (either directly, or after playoff matches).
Each of the provinces in Belgium has their own league structure within the provincial leagues, with the exception of Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant which are still playing together in the Brabant division. The Province of Brabant was split into Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and the Brussels Capital Region from 1 January 1995 as part of the 1993 state reform, however the provincial football league of Brabant still exists as such and contains these two provinces and teams from Brussels.
As such, there are nine leagues at the first level of the provincial leagues, namely the leagues of the provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders, Hainaut, Liège, Limburg, Luxembourg, Namur, West Flanders and finally the Brabant division containing teams from the Brussels Capital Region, Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant.
Since 2006, each division is composed of 16 clubs. The regular season is thus composed of 30 matchdays, generally played on Sunday. The nine league winners of the regular season qualify for the Belgian Division 3 (until 2020 the Third Amateur Division and until 2015 the Belgian Fourth Division), as well as the second placed teams of the three most active provinces of the previous season, i.e. the provinces that count the most active teams in the national and provincial leagues. Those twelve clubs replace the last three teams of each league of Division 3. The six other second placed teams enter the promotion playoff on the second matchday.
As each team relegated from the Belgian Division 3 must play the next season in a specific provincial league based on its location, the number of newcomers in each provincial league may be different. Therefore, there may then be more relegated teams than usual from some first provincial divisions to the respective second provincial divisions, to allow the total number of teams in each division to remain constant. Each provincial general assembly can decide to organise its own relegation playoff including teams from the first and the second divisions but there must be at least two teams directly relegated to the second provincial division.
The promotion playoff is played over three matchdays. The first one is composed of two matches played by the four thirteenth placed teams of each league in Division 3. The host team is the first to be drawn. The two losing teams enter the second matchday whereas the two winners remain in Division 3. Four matches are played in the second matchday, between the six second placed teams of the provincial first divisions that did not qualify directly and the two Division 3 teams that lost in the previous round. The four matches are grouped by two, and each of the Division 3 teams play a match in a different group. The two winners of each group play a group final in the third matchday to decide the last two teams to promote.
The number of leagues at the second provincial division level differs from province to province, most have three but some only have two. Each league is played between 16 teams. The system of promotion and relegation is set up by the annual provincial assembly.
At the third provincial level, the amount of leagues differs even more, ranging from three to six. Also from this level on the leagues sometimes have fewer teams than the standard 16. Again, the system of promotion and relegation is set up by the annual provincial assembly.
In most provinces the fourth provincial level is the lowest level of football, except for Luxembourg where the lowest level is the third one. At this level the system of promotion is set up by the annual provincial assembly as well.
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| League system |
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| Women's League system |
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| Domestic cups |
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| Awards | |||||||||||||||
Flemish Brabant is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also surrounds the Brussels-Capital Region. Its capital is Leuven. It has an area of 2,118 km2 (818 sq mi) which is divided into two administrative districts containing 65 municipalities. As of January 2019, Flemish Brabant has a population of 1,146,175.
Walloon Brabant is a province of Wallonia and Belgium. It borders on the province of Flemish Brabant and the provinces of Liège, Namur and Hainaut (Wallonia). Its capital and largest city is Wavre.
Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities and three regions that are based on four language areas. For each of these subdivision types, the subdivisions together make up the entire country; in other words, the types overlap.
The country of Belgium is divided into three regions. Two of these regions, Flanders and Wallonia, are each subdivided into five provinces. The third region, Brussels, is not divided into provinces, as it was originally only a small part of a province itself.
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The Belgian Cup is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed to partake. As of 1964, the Belgian Cup has been organised annually. Since the 2015–16 edition, the Belgian Cup is called the Croky Cup, for sponsorship purposes. The final traditionally takes place at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
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The Province of Brabant was a province in Belgium from 1830 to 1995. It was created in 1815 as South Brabant, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1995, it was split into the Dutch-speaking Flemish Brabant, the French-speaking Walloon Brabant and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region.
The Ghent Gators are an American football team situated in Ghent. The team was established in 1999 by Craig Bailey, an American living in Belgium, through his local pizza delivery business. Along with 8 other Flemish teams, they are part of the Flemish American Football League (FAFL) conference in the Belgian Football League (BFL). They managed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in their existence on May 18, 2014 and won their first Belgian championship on 29 June 2014 by beating the Brussels Tigers in Belgian Bowl XXVII.
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The Belgian Division 3, commonly referred to as simply Derde Afdeling or Division 3 is the fifth-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Division 2. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 2016 as a new layer at the fifth level of the league system, at that time named Belgian Third Amateur Division. From the 2020–21 season on it was renamed to Belgian Division 3, due to the negative connotation of the word amateur. The division consists of four separate leagues with 16 teams each, two of these leagues consist of teams playing with a license from the Voetbalfederatie Vlaanderen and two with teams with a license from the Association des Clubs Francophones de Football.
The 2017–18 Belgian Third Amateur Division is the second season of the division in its current format, replacing the former Belgian Fourth Division.
The 2018–19 Belgian Third Amateur Division is the third season of the division in its current format, replacing the former Belgian Fourth Division.
The 2019–20 Belgian Third Amateur Division was the fourth season of the division in its current format. Mid-March all matches were temporarily postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, only to be canceled permanently two weeks later, with the standing as of March 12th counting as final. As a result, Knokke, Tienen and Francs Borains were crowned champions in their respective league and were each promoted to the 2020–21 Belgian Second Amateur Division.
The 2020–21 Belgian Division 3 was the fifth season of the division in its current format, placed at the fifth-tier of football in Belgium and the first under this name, after being renamed (Belgian) Division 3 from (Belgian) Third Amateur Division. The season was cancelled in January 2021 with just a few matches played, as measures taken by the Belgian government against the spread of COVID-19 prohibited amateur football.
