Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen, often simply called KV Mechelen or KVM, or by their former French name FC Malinois, is a Belgian professional football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp province. KV Mechelen plays in the Belgian Pro League. They have won four Belgian championships and twice the Belgian Cup, as well as the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 1988 European Super Cup. They collected most of their honours in the 1940s and in the 1980s.
The Belgian Pro League, officially the Jupiler Pro League, due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler, is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023–24 season onwards, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Challenger Pro League.
Leo Albert Jozef "Lei" Clijsters was a Belgian professional footballer who played as a centre-back.
Francis Severeyns, nicknamed Cisse, is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a striker for Royal Antwerp, Pisa S.C., KV Mechelen, FC Tirol Innsbruck and K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot. He was the Jupiler League top scorer in 1988 with 24 goals. He played seven matches for the Belgium national team. Whilst at Antwerp he helped them to the 1993 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, in which he scored to tie the game at 1–1, although they went on to lose 3–1 to Parma.
Marc Jozef Emmers is a retired Belgian footballer.
K.R.C. Mechelen is a Belgian association football club from Mechelen in the Antwerp province. It is a long-time rival of KV Mechelen. The club's best position ever is a second place in the first division 1951–52. KRC Mechelen also reached the final of the Belgian Cup in 1954. However, the team has been falling through the Belgian football league system since 2015 and in the 2017–18 season it will be playing in the Belgian Provincial Leagues for the first time since 1906.
Johannes "John" Jacobus Bosman is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a striker.
Graeme Wayne Rutjes is a former Australian-born Dutch footballer, who played as a defender for Excelsior Rotterdam (1980–85), Y.R. K.V. Mechelen (1985–90) and R.S.C. Anderlecht (1990–96).
Adriaan "Aad" de Mos is a Dutch retired professional football manager whose career spanned for almost thirty years.
The 1988 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match contested between Mechelen of Belgium and the defending champions, Ajax of the Netherlands. It was the final match of the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 28th European Cup Winners' Cup final. The final was played at Stade de la Meinau in Strasbourg, France, on 11 May 1988. Mechelen won the match 1–0 thanks to a goal by Piet den Boer who headed the ball low into the net after a cross by Eli Ohana from the left.
Wim Hofkens is a former football player who played five games for the Dutch national side.
Koninklijke Rupel Boom FC is a Belgian association football club based in Boom, Antwerp province currently playing in the Belgian Division 2, the fourth tier of Belgian football. They play at the Gemeentelijk Parkstadion in Boom.
The 2014–15 season of the Belgian Pro League is the 112th season of top-tier football in Belgium. It started on 27 July 2014 and finished in May 2015. K.A.A. Gent won the league, making it the first championship title in their 115-year history.
The 2017–18 Belgian First Division A was the 115th season of top-tier football in Belgium. The season began on 28 July 2017 and concluded on 20 May 2018. The fixtures were announced in early June 2017. Anderlecht were the defending champions but had to settle for third place with Club Brugge taking their 15th title.
The 2018–19 season of the Belgian First Division B began in August 2018 and ended in April 2019. It was the third season of the First Division B following a change in league format from the old Belgian Second Division.
The 2019 Belgian Cup final, named Croky Cup after the sponsor, was the 64th Belgian Cup final and took place on 1 May 2019 between Gent and KV Mechelen. KV Mechelen was the first team from outside the top division to qualify for the cup final since the 2001 Belgian Cup Final when Belgian Second Division champions Lommel lost to Westerlo. KV Mechelen won the cup by two goals to one.
The 2019–20 Belgian First Division A was the 117th season of top-tier football in Belgium.
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 2022–23 Belgian Pro League was the 120th season of top-tier football in Belgium. Royal Antwerp were crowned league champions for the first time in 66 years after pipping Genk and Union St-Gilloise on the final day, the first occasion since 1999 that three clubs were still contending the title going in the final match. All three Championship chasers were in the virtual lead in the table at different stages across the final five minutes before Toby Alderweireld's title-clinching goal.
The following article is a summary of the 2022–23 football season in Belgium, which is the 120th season of competitive football in the country and will run from July 2022 until June 2023.
