Sport in Belgium plays a prominent role in the society. As of 2010, Belgium counted around 17,000 sport clubs with approximately 1.35 million members, or about 13% of the Belgian population. Popular sports in Belgium are, among others: football, cycling, tennis, table tennis, athletics, swimming, basketball, badminton, judo, hockey, rowing, motocross, auto racing, volleyball, and running. Belgium has organized the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp as well as the 1972 UEFA European Championship and the 2000 UEFA European Championship along with the Netherlands. The Belgium national football team's best result was a 3rd place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and a second place of the 1980 UEFA European Championship. Belgian football clubs have won 3 times the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and twice the UEFA Cup, plus 3 times the UEFA Supercup.
Basketball Club Oostende, for sponsorship reasons Filou Oostende, is a Belgian professional basketball team. The club is based in Ostend and was founded in 1970. The club competes domestically in the BNXT League and internationally in the Basketball Champions League. Oostende is the most successful basketball club in Belgian history, as the club's honour list includes a record twenty-five Belgian League championships, a record nineteen Belgian Cups and eleven Belgian Supercups.
Antwerp Giants, named Telenet Giants Antwerp for sponsorship reasons, is a Belgian professional basketball club based in Antwerp. Their home arena is Lotto Arena. The club plays in the BNXT League, the highest tier of Belgian basketball. The club was created from the merger of Sobabee and Racing Mechelen. Then named Racing Basket Antwerpen, it was renamed Antwerp Giants in 2005.
Donar, also known as Donar Groningen, is a professional basketball club based in Groningen, Netherlands. The club competes in the BNXT League and its home arena is MartiniPlaza, which has a seating capacity of 4,350 people.
Belfius Mons-Hainaut is a Belgian professional basketball club that is based in Mons, Wallonia. The club competes in the highest division of the country, the BNXT League. The club's home arena is the Mons Arena. Founded as Quaregnon in 1959, the club has been a regular in the Belgian first division as the club plays in the highest tier for 34 years, since the 1990–91 season. Mons-Hainaut also participated in European competitions annually, mostly in the FIBA Europe Cup.
The Pro Basketball League (PBL), was the highest tier level professional basketball league in Belgium for clubs. In 2021, the league was succeeded by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT League.
The 1973–74 season was the 71st season of competitive football in Belgium. RSC Anderlechtois won their 16th Division I title. KSV Waregem won the Belgian Cup against second division club KSK Tongeren (4-1). The Belgium national football team finished their 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign at the second place of their group behind the Netherlands, with the same number of points but a smaller goal difference. They thus did not qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup finals in West Germany. The Belgian Women's First Division was won by R Saint-Nicolas FC Liège.
Okapi Aalst is a Belgian professional basketball club from Aalst, Belgium. The club competes in the top tier BNXT League and plays its home games in the Okapi Forum, which has a seating capacity of 2,800 people.
The 2013–14 season of the Belgian Pro League was the 111th season of top-tier football in Belgium. It started on 27 July 2013 with the match between Club Brugge and Charleroi and finished on 18 May 2014 with Anderlecht grabbing their 33rd title due to a 3–1 at home against Lokeren.
The 2012–13 Basketball League Belgium Division I, for sponsorship reasons named 2012–13 Ethias League, was the 85th season of the top tier basketball league in Belgium. The season started on October 6, 2012 and finished on June 9, 2013. The season ended with the defending champions Telenet Oostende defeating Belfius Mons-Hainaut in three games to win its 14th national title.
The Belgian Basketball Supercup, also called the Generali Supercup for sponsorship reasons, is a men’s professional basketball game in Belgium, which is played by the champion of the Basketball League Belgium Division I and the winner of the Belgian Basketball Cup. It is a super cup competition. The game is played in Knokke.
The 2013–14 Basketball League Belgium Division I, for sponsorship reasons the 2013–14 Ethias League, was the 87th season top tier basketball league in Belgium. The season started on October 4, 2013 and finished on June 9, 2014. Telenet BC Oostende won their 3rd straight title by beating Okapi Aalstar 3–2 in the Finals. Dušan Djordjević was named Most Valuable Player.
BC Castors Braine is a basketball club, with both men's and women's sections, based in the municipality of Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium. The women's team plays in the National First Division and won the title in 2014. The men's team plays in the provincial division.
The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 2016, replacing the Belgian Second Division. From the season 2016–17 until 2019–20, the competition was named Proximus League, after the main sponsor Proximus.
The 2019–20 Pro Basketball League, for sponsorship reasons the EuroMillions Basketball League, season was the 93rd season of the Pro Basketball League (PBL), first tier of basketball in Belgium. The season started on 13 September 2019 and was stopped abruptly in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 13 March 2020, the Belgian Basketball Association decided, in agreement with all participating clubs, to end the season rather than assume the postponed matches could still be played, taking the current standings as final. As such, Oostende won their 21st title.
The 2020–21 Pro Basketball League (PBL) was the 94th season of the Pro Basketball League, the highest professional basketball league in the Belgium. The regular season was supposed to start in September 2020 but was delayed to 2 October 2020 due to new coronavirus restrictions. It is the last season as the PBL, as in the following season the multinational BNXT League commences.
The 2021–22 Belgian Pro League was the 119th season of top-flight football in Belgium. Club Brugge completed their first league Championship hat-trick since the 1970s by edging out long-time leaders Union Saint-Gilloise, who had led for 200 days until losing twice to Club in the title play-offs. Had Union achieved their unlikely success, they would have been the first newly promoted side to win the Belgian League, and the first to claim a top-20 ranked European league since FC Kaiserslautern's 1997–98 Bundesliga triumph in Germany.
The BNXT League is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the DBL and PBL. The inaugural season was the 2021–22 season, which started in September 2021.
Loïc Schwartz is a Belgian professional basketball player for Saint-Quentin of the LNB Pro B. He also represents the Belgium national basketball team internationally.
