1997–98 Belgian First Division

Belgian First Division
Season	1997–1998
Champions	Club Brugge
Relegated	RWDM; Antwerp
Champions League	Club Brugge
Cup Winners' Cup	Racing Genk
UEFA Cup	Beerschot AC; Anderlecht
Intertoto Cup	RC Harelbeke; Lommel
Matches played	306
Goals scored	904 (2.95 per match)
Top goalscorer	Branko Strupar (22)
	← 1996–97 1998-99 →

The 1997–98 season of the Jupiler League was held between August 8, 1997, and May 10, 1998. Club Brugge became champions.

Promoted teams

Racing Club Harelbeke

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Location of teams in Belgian First Division 1997–98

These teams were promoted from the second division at the start of the season:

Beveren (second division champions)
Westerlo (playoff winner)

Relegated teams

These teams were relegated to the second division at the end of the season:

RWDM
Antwerp

Brugge's title success

Club Brugge ended in first place 18 points ahead of Racing Genk.

Battle for Europe

Sporting Anderlecht finally qualified for the UEFA Cup by ending in 4th place as Genk (2nd) and Brugge (1st) played the Cup final. The third team to qualify for the UEFA Cup was Germinal Ekeren (3rd).

The relegation dog fight

RWDM was relegated following a 1-1 draw at Charleroi as the newcomer Beveren managed to draw against Germinal Ekeren on the 33rd matchday. With 4 points more than RWDM the club from Waasland then lost to Anderlecht on the last matchday whereas RWDM easily beat Lokeren by 5-1.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Club Brugge	34	26	6	2	78	29	+49	84	Qualified for 1998–99 UEFA Champions League^[a]
2	K.R.C. Genk	34	20	6	8	65	40	+25	66	Qualified for 1998–99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
3	K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot	34	17	7	10	60	48	+12	58	Qualified for 1998–99 UEFA Cup
4	R.S.C. Anderlecht	34	16	9	9	53	37	+16	57	Qualified for 1998–99 UEFA Cup
5	Racing Club Harelbeke	34	15	10	9	50	31	+19	55	Qualified for 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup
6	K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen	34	16	4	14	68	68	0	52
7	Lierse S.K.	34	14	8	12	54	45	+9	50
8	K.A.A. Gent	34	11	14	9	50	44	+6	47
9	Standard Liège	34	11	10	13	53	50	+3	43
10	R.E. Mouscron	34	11	8	15	39	45	−6	41
11	K.F.C. Lommel S.K.	34	10	11	13	46	50	−4	41	Qualified for 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup
12	K.V.C. Westerlo	34	9	14	11	52	56	−4	41
13	R. Charleroi S.C.	34	9	12	13	46	57	−11	39
14	K. Sint-Truidense V.V.	34	8	13	13	32	45	−13	37
15	K.S.C. Eendracht Aalst	34	9	9	16	51	66	−15	36
16	K.S.K. Beveren	34	7	11	16	30	48	−18	32
17	R.W.D. Molenbeek	34	8	7	19	39	74	−35	31	Relegated to Division II
18	R. Antwerp F.C.	34	6	7	21	38	71	−33	25	Relegated to Division II

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Notes:

^ Club Brugge competed in the UEFA Cup after losing their Champions League Second Qualifying Round tie.

Results

Home \ Away	AAL	AND	ANT	BEV	CLU	CHA	EKE	GNK	GNT	HAR	LIE	LOK	LOM	MOL	MOU	STV	STA	WES
Eendracht Aalst		2–3	2–0	3–0	1–4	7–2	1–3	1–1	2–0	3–2	1–3	1–5	2–1	0–2	1–3	3–2	1–1	2–3
Anderlecht	3–1		2–2	2–0	0–1	3–1	4–0	0–2	2–2	1–0	2–0	5–0	2–0	0–2	1–2	1–0	2–0	1–0
Antwerp	1–1	0–1		1–0	0–1	2–4	3–2	2–1	0–0	0–2	3–2	1–2	2–1	1–0	1–2	0–4	3–5	0–0
Beveren	0–0	0–1	0–2		1–2	1–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–0	1–2	3–0	2–2	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–3	2–0
Club Brugge	4–1	2–1	3–2	3–1		3–2	1–3	2–0	2–1	2–1	2–1	5–0	2–0	4–1	1–0	6–0	0–0	3–1
Charleroi	1–1	3–0	2–1	0–0	2–2		3–2	1–2	1–1	3–3	3–0	2–0	1–2	1–1	3–0	0–0	2–1	1–1
Germinal Ekeren	2–3	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–2	5–0		4–3	1–3	0–2	1–1	4–2	1–0	3–1	2–2	1–0	0–3	1–0
Genk	3–2	2–1	1–1	3–0	3–0	4–0	4–2		2–1	1–0	1–3	1–0	3–0	3–0	0–2	0–0	1–1	5–5
Gent	0–0	1–1	0–0	3–2	0–4	3–1	0–2	1–2		0–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	3–4	0–0	1–1	4–1	6–0
Harelbeke	2–1	1–1	3–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	3–1	2–0	3–0		0–2	3–2	1–1	4–1	5–1	3–1	2–0	0–0
Lierse	1–1	0–1	2–1	2–0	2–4	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–2	1–1		3–0	1–4	1–1	2–0	1–0	3–1	3–1
Lokeren	4–1	2–1	5–0	1–2	1–1	3–2	1–3	1–5	3–2	1–0	4–2		2–1	5–0	2–1	0–2	1–3	3–0
Lommel	2–2	2–2	5–2	3–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	3–1	0–1	0–0	1–2	1–5		3–1	1–0	1–1	2–2	2–1
Molenbeek	1–1	2–2	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–2	0–4	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–3	5–1	1–2		2–1	2–0	1–4	1–2
Mouscron	2–0	2–2	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–0	2–0	1–3	2–1	4–0		1–3	3–2	0–2
Sint-Truiden	2–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–2	2–0	2–0	0–2	3–3	1–2	0–5	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–0		0–0	0–0
Standard Liège	3–0	1–2	2–2	1–2	0–3	2–0	0–2	3–0	3–3	0–1	0–0	1–3	1–0	4–0	1–1	2–0		2–2
Westerlo	0–3	2–2	5–2	3–0	2–2	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–1	2–2	1–1	3–3	1–1	5–1	2–1	4–1	2–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goal scorers

Scorer	Goals	Team
Branko Strupar	22	Racing Genk
Tomasz Radzinski	19	Germinal Ekeren
Peter Lässen	15	Eendracht Aalst
Gunther Hofmans	15	Germinal Ekeren
Souleymane Oularé	14	Racing Genk