1998–99 Belgian First Division

Belgian First Division
Season	1998–1999
Champions	Racing Genk
Relegated	Kortrijk; Oostende
Champions League	Racing Genk
UEFA Cup	Club Brugge; R.S.C. Anderlecht
Matches played	306
Goals scored	972 (3.18 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jan Koller (24)
	← 1997–98 1999-2000 →

The 1998–99 season of the Jupiler League was held between August 21, 1998, and May 16, 1999. Racing Genk became champions.

Promoted teams

Location of teams in Belgian First Division 1998–99

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

Oostende (second division champions)
Kortrijk (playoff winner)

Relegated teams

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

Genk's title success

After a deceiving start of the competition Anderlecht managed to come back at the top of the ranking under the management of Jean Dockx and Franky Vercauteren even beating its long-time rival Standard Liège in a memorable 0-6 demonstration. Two matches before the end of the season, the ranking was as such:

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1.	Genk	32	70
2.	Brugge	32	68
3.	Anderlecht	32	64

Those three teams were thus still able to win the championship. While Club Brugge lost its game to Mouscron 2-0, Anderlecht secured a 2-5 win to Genk. However the Racing did win its last match at Harelbeke and it thus became champion.

Battle for Europe

With Genk qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, Anderlecht and Brugge entered the UEFA Cup.

The relegation dog fight

Lommel avoided relegation by winning its last match 2-1 to Charleroi while the newcomer Kortrijk lost to Anderlecht. The other newcomer (Oostende) was already relegated at this moment.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Genk (C)	34	22	7	5	74	38	+36	73	Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2	Club Brugge	34	22	5	7	65	38	+27	71	Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round
3	Anderlecht	34	21	7	6	76	39	+37	70	Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round
4	Mouscron	34	19	9	6	76	47	+29	66
5	Lokeren	34	17	6	11	69	61	+8	57	Qualification to Intertoto Cup second round
6	Standard Liège	34	17	3	14	55	47	+8	54
7	Lierse	34	16	6	12	72	47	+25	54	Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
8	Gent	34	14	10	10	55	59	−4	52
9	Sint-Truiden	34	14	9	11	52	46	+6	51	Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round
10	Germinal Ekeren	34	14	7	13	48	46	+2	49
11	Harelbeke	34	10	11	13	44	46	−2	41
12	Westerlo	34	11	7	16	56	62	−6	40
13	Eendracht Aalst	34	9	8	17	48	66	−18	35
14	Charleroi	34	7	11	16	40	54	−14	32
15	Beveren	34	8	6	20	33	60	−27	30
16	Lommel	34	7	7	20	33	56	−23	28
17	Kortrijk (R)	34	6	7	21	49	81	−32	25	Relegation to 1999–2000 Belgian Second Division
18	Oostende (R)	34	4	10	20	27	79	−52	22	Relegation to 1999–2000 Belgian Second Division

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	AAL	AND	BEV	CLU	CHA	EKE	GNK	GNT	HAR	KOR	LIE	LOK	LOM	MOU	OST	STV	STA	WES
Eendracht Aalst		0–0	0–1	0–2	2–2	5–0	1–2	0–2	2–2	1–1	1–4	3–3	3–1	1–4	4–0	1–3	1–0	3–2
Anderlecht	2–1		3–1	2–3	1–1	2–0	3–2	4–0	3–1	3–1	2–0	1–1	3–0	1–1	3–0	1–1	0–1	3–2
Beveren	0–2	2–1		1–2	1–2	2–1	1–0	0–3	0–3	2–2	1–3	1–2	0–0	1–4	5–0	0–1	0–6	1–0
Club Brugge	0–0	2–0	3–1		3–2	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	3–0	3–1	4–0	0–1	0–0	2–0	3–2	1–1	5–3
Charleroi	0–1	0–2	1–2	1–2		2–2	1–1	1–1	2–1	2–1	5–0	2–1	1–1	1–3	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–3
Germinal Ekeren	1–0	0–3	1–0	2–0	2–0		0–2	8–1	0–2	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	2–2	1–0	0–1	0–3
Genk	2–0	2–5	1–0	1–1	2–1	3–2		1–0	2–2	3–1	3–1	3–1	6–0	3–0	3–0	4–1	2–1	3–0
Gent	2–2	3–2	4–1	0–4	1–1	1–3	0–1		0–0	3–1	1–0	2–1	2–2	3–0	1–1	1–1	3–2	2–0
Harelbeke	5–1	1–2	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–4	1–2	2–2		1–0	3–1	3–2	1–1	0–4	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–2
Kortrijk	3–4	0–4	1–0	2–4	2–2	1–2	1–3	3–4	0–0		3–2	0–6	4–1	2–2	2–0	2–2	1–3	4–2
Lierse	3–1	0–0	3–0	5–2	4–0	1–0	1–1	1–2	3–1	5–1		2–3	2–1	1–2	4–2	6–0	3–0	5–1
Lokeren	6–2	2–3	4–3	2–0	3–1	1–1	2–0	1–4	1–0	2–1	2–0		2–1	0–0	1–2	2–1	4–1	3–0
Lommel	0–3	2–2	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–2	0–3	0–1	0–1	3–1	0–0	1–2		2–3	3–0	0–1	3–0	0–1
Mouscron	3–1	2–3	1–0	2–0	3–2	2–2	3–5	7–1	2–2	3–1	0–0	5–1	2–0		2–1	5–1	1–5	2–1
Oostende	4–1	0–2	1–1	1–4	0–0	0–1	1–1	2–2	1–0	1–3	0–6	0–0	1–1	2–4		0–1	2–1	1–1
Sint-Truiden	2–0	1–4	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	2–2	1–0	1–0	2–2	3–0	7–0	2–1	0–2	5–0		0–1	0–0
Standard Liège	3–0	0–6	1–2	3–0	2–0	1–0	2–4	2–0	0–2	2–1	2–2	2–4	1–0	2–0	3–0	2–0		2–0
Westerlo	1–1	6–0	0–0	1–2	1–0	2–4	1–1	3–3	0–3	2–0	0–2	4–3	2–1	1–1	7–0	1–4	3–1

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

Top scorers

Scorer	Goals	Team
Jan Koller	24	Lokeren
Branko Strupar	18	Genk
Souleymane Oularé	17	Genk
Zoran Ban	16	Mouscron
Tomasz Radzinski	15	Anderlecht
Jochen Janssen	15	Westerlo
Filip Fiers	15	Sint-Truidense
Eric Van Meir	14	Lierse