171-508: The Belgian Pro League ( Dutch : Eerste klasse ; French : Championnat de Belgique de football ; German : Pro League ), officially the Jupiler Pro League ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʑypilɛr ˈproː ˌlik] ) for sponsor 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
342-731: A Belgian Ebony Shoe award. Players compete also every season for the Belgian First Division top scorer, since the 1945–46 season. Erwin Vandenbergh is the only player to have claimed the top scorer title four consecutive times, between 1979–80 and 1982–83 (the first three times while at Lierse SK and the last time while at RSC Anderlecht ). He is also the player to have claimed the most Belgian First Division top scorer titles in his career (six times with three different clubs: three times with Lierse SK, twice with RSC Anderlecht and once with KAA Gent ). Victor Wegria and Josip Weber won
513-561: A common ancestor with languages such as English, German, and the Scandinavian languages . All Germanic languages are subject to the Grimm's law and Verner's law sound shifts, which originated in the Proto-Germanic language and define the basic features differentiating them from other Indo-European languages. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in
684-461: A schwa . The Middle Dutch dialect areas were affected by political boundaries. The sphere of political influence of a certain ruler often also created a sphere of linguistic influence, with the language within the area becoming more homogenous. Following the contemporary political divisions they are in order of importance: A process of standardisation started in the Middle Ages , especially under
855-584: A synod taking place in Corbridge , England , where the decisions are being written down " tam Latine quam theodisce " meaning "in Latin as well as common vernacular". According to a hypothesis by De Grauwe, In northern West Francia (i.e. modern-day Belgium) the term would take on a new meaning during the Early Middle Ages , when, within the context of a highly dichromatic linguistic landscape, it came to be
1026-457: A bright European start, with Anderlecht reaching the second group stage in the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League , but the rest of the decade Belgian clubs were again not very successful in European competitions. In the league, RSC Anderlecht won five titles in the decade, with Club Brugge claiming two titles and Racing Genk taking their second title. At the end of the decade, Standard Liège returned as
1197-559: A comparison between the West Germanic languages, see the sections Phonology, Grammar, and Vocabulary. Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both related with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language . Although heavily under the influence of the standard language, some of them remain diverse and are found in the Netherlands and in
1368-461: A consequence evolve (along with Alemannic , Bavarian and Lombardic ) into Old High German. At more or less the same time the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, moving over Western Europe from west to east, led to the development of Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Old Frisian and Old Saxon . Hardly influenced by either development, Old Dutch probably remained relatively close to the original language of
1539-513: A goal that looked offside , chased De Braeckel from the stadium. Two Cercle fans proposed to the Cercle Brugge board that they give the referee a ride to the Bruges railway station; the board accepted, but the fans instead drove the referee toward Zedelgem , where they threw him from the car in the middle of nowhere. Immediately after liberation in 1944, an unofficial championship was organised among
1710-566: A minority language in Germany and northern France's French Flanders . Though Belgium as a whole is multilingual, three of the four language areas into which the country is divided ( Flanders , francophone Wallonia , and the German-speaking Community ) are largely monolingual, with Brussels being bilingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority of music , films , books and other media written or spoken in Dutch. Dutch
1881-657: A minority) and the province of Walloon Brabant . Brabantian expands into small parts in the west of Limburg while its strong influence on the East Flemish of East Flanders and eastern Zeelandic Flanders weakens towards the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant ( Willemstad ), Hollandic is spoken. Conventionally, the Kleverlandish dialects are distinguished from Brabantian, but there are no objective criteria apart from geography to do so. Over 5 million people live in an area with some form of Brabantian being
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#17328487207102052-442: A more successful new era at Cercle who, under Delfour's command, missed promotion only barely in 1960 and returned at last to the top flight in 1961. Cercle had taken 15 years to return to the highest division, and remained there for only five more. They scarcely escaped relegation in their first season back at the top level, thanks only to a successful proposition by Antwerp that changed the way teams with equal points were ordered in
2223-420: A number of closely related, mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the former Old Dutch area. Where Old Dutch fragments are very hard to read for untrained Modern Dutch speakers, the various literary works of Middle Dutch are somewhat more accessible. The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is in a feature of speech known as vowel reduction , whereby vowels in unstressed syllables are leveled to
2394-566: A political border, because the traditional dialects are strongly influenced by the national standard varieties. While a somewhat heterogeneous group of Low Franconian dialects, Limburgish has received official status as a regional language in the Netherlands and Germany, but not in Belgium. Due to this official recognition, it receives protection by chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Afrikaans , although to
2565-413: A result, Nederduits no longer serves as a synonym for the Dutch language. In the 19th century, the term " Diets " was revived by Dutch linguists and historians as well, as a poetic name for Middle Dutch and its literature . Old Dutch can be discerned more or less around the same time as Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Old High German , Old Frisian , and Old Saxon . These names are derived from
2736-505: A result, when West Flemings try to talk Standard Dutch, they are often unable to pronounce the g-sound, and pronounce it similar to the h-sound. This leaves, for example, no difference between " held " (hero) and " geld " (money). Or in some cases, they are aware of the problem, and hyper-correct the "h" into a voiced velar fricative or g-sound, again leaving no difference. The West Flemish variety historically spoken in adjacent parts in France
2907-464: A second or third language in the polyglot Caribbean island countries of Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in the Dutch Language Union . The Dutch Caribbean municipalities ( St. Eustatius , Saba and Bonaire ) have Dutch as one of the official languages. In Asia, Dutch
3078-516: A significant degree mutually intelligible with Dutch, is usually not considered a dialect but instead a separate standardised language . It is spoken in South Africa and Namibia. As a daughter language of 17th-century Dutch dialects, Afrikaans evolved in parallel with modern Dutch, but was influenced by various other languages in South Africa. West Frisian ( Westerlauwers Fries ), along with Saterland Frisian and North Frisian , evolved from
3249-466: A slow start to the 1929–30 season , entering the mid-season winter break in sixth place and seven points adrift of leaders Antwerp . Nonetheless, by the closing weekend of the season they had narrowed the gap to a single point; the final game saw them score a 4–1 victory at home to Lierse SK . The side then faced an anxious wait for the result of Antwerp against 10th placed Standard Liège , contemporary telecommunication facilities at grounds being poor. In
3420-473: A somewhat different development since the late Middle Ages. Two dialect groups have been given the official status of regional language (or streektaal ) in the Netherlands. Like several other dialect groups, both are part of a dialect continuum that continues across the national border. The Dutch Low Saxon dialect area comprises the provinces of Groningen , Drenthe and Overijssel , as well as parts of
3591-424: A source language, mainly for law and history students. In Indonesia this involves about 35,000 students. Unlike other European nations, the Dutch chose not to follow a policy of language expansion amongst the indigenous peoples of their colonies. In the last quarter of the 19th century, however, a local elite gained proficiency in Dutch so as to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy and business. Nevertheless,
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#17328487207103762-588: A system of promotion and relegation with the Challenger Pro League . Seasons run from late July to late March, with teams playing 30 matches each in the regular season, and then entering Play-offs I (also known as the Championship Playoff , title playoffs or Champions' play-offs ) or Play-offs II (also known as the Europa League playoff or Europe play-offs ) according to their position in
3933-421: A test-match is played in two legs to determine the final order in the standings. A playoff phase is then played from May. The point system in the championship playoff is the same as during the regular season, except that each team starts with half of the points they won in the regular season, rounded up to the nearest integer. The points gained by rounding are deducted in the case of a tie. The top six teams from
4104-561: A title contender with two consecutive titles, 25 years after their 1982–83 title. At the end of the 2000s, the highest level in Belgian football was reshaped, with a play-off round after the regular season. RSC Anderlecht won the first championship in this new format , which was their 30th title. After another two titles for Anderlecht, KAA Gent was the surprise winner of the Championship in 2015. The following seven years, Club Brugge would win
4275-538: A unique prestige dialect and has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties. In the Netherlands, the Hollandic dialect dominates in national broadcast media while in Flanders Brabantian dialect dominates in that capacity, making them in turn unofficial prestige dialects in their respective countries. Outside
4446-531: Is kantor , handdoek "towel" in Indonesian is handuk , or bushalte "bus stop" in Indonesian is halte bus . In addition, many Indonesian words are calques of Dutch; for example, rumah sakit "hospital" is calqued on the Dutch ziekenhuis (literally "sickhouse"), kebun binatang "zoo" on dierentuin (literally "animal garden"), undang-undang dasar "constitution" from grondwet (literally "ground law"). These account for some of
4617-525: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. Cercle Brugge K.S.V. Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsɛr(ə)klə ˈbrʏɣə ˈkoːnɪŋkləkə ˈspɔrtfəˌreːnəɣɪŋ] ) is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges . Cercle have played in the Belgian Pro League since the 2003–04 season , having previously spent several years in
4788-499: Is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family , spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands and Flanders (which includes 60% of the population of Belgium ). Dutch was one of the official languages of South Africa until 1925, when it
4959-466: Is a calque of the aforementioned Roman province Germania Inferior and an attempt by early Dutch grammarians to give their language more prestige by linking it to Roman times. Likewise, Hoogduits ("High German") and Overlands ("Upper-landish") came into use as a Dutch exonym for the various German dialects used in neighboring German states. Use of Nederduytsch was popular in the 16th century but ultimately lost out over Nederlands during
5130-469: Is a monocentric language , at least what concerns its written form, with all speakers using the same standard form (authorised by the Dutch Language Union ) based on a Dutch orthography defined in the so-called " Green Booklet " authoritative dictionary and employing the Latin alphabet when writing; however, pronunciation varies between dialects. Indeed, in stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks
5301-521: Is also an official language of several international organisations, such as the European Union , Union of South American Nations and the Caribbean Community . At an academic level, Dutch is taught in about 175 universities in 40 countries. About 15,000 students worldwide study Dutch at university. In Europe, Dutch is the majority language in the Netherlands (96%) and Belgium (59%) as well as
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5472-578: Is found in the Salic law . In this Frankish document written around 510 the oldest Dutch sentence has been identified: Maltho thi afrio lito ("I say to you, I free you, serf") used to free a serf. Another old fragment of Dutch is Visc flot aftar themo uuatare ("A fish was swimming in the water"). The oldest conserved larger Dutch text is the Utrecht baptismal vow (776–800) starting with Forsachistu diobolae ... ec forsacho diabolae (litt.: "Forsake you
5643-513: Is mostly Germanic; it incorporates slightly more Romance loans than German, but far fewer than English. In Belgium, the Netherlands and Suriname, the native official name for Dutch is Nederlands (historically Nederlandsch before the Dutch orthographic reforms ). Sometimes Vlaams (" Flemish ") is used as well to describe Standard Dutch in Flanders , whereas Hollands (" Hollandic ")
5814-480: Is occasionally used as a colloquial term for the standard language in the central and northwestern parts of the Netherlands. English uses the adjective Dutch as a noun for the language of the Netherlands and Flanders. The word is derived from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz . The stem of this word, *þeudō , meant "people" in Proto-Germanic, and *-iskaz was an adjective-forming suffix, of which -ish
5985-506: Is so distinct that it might be considered as a separate language variant, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. An oddity of the dialect is that, the voiced velar fricative (written as "g" in Dutch) shifts to a voiced glottal fricative (written as "h" in Dutch), while the letter "h" becomes mute (like in French). As
6156-573: Is sometimes called French Flemish and is listed as a French minority language . However, only a very small and aging minority of the French-Flemish population still speaks and understands West Flemish. Hollandic is spoken in Holland and Utrecht , though the original forms of this dialect (which were heavily influenced by a West Frisian substratum and, from the 16th century on, by Brabantian dialects ) are now relatively rare. The urban dialects of
6327-614: Is spoken in Limburg (Belgium) as well as in the remaining part of Limburg (Netherlands) and extends across the German border. West Flemish ( Westvlaams ) is spoken in West Flanders , the western part of Zeelandic Flanders and also in French Flanders , where it virtually became extinct to make way for French. The West Flemish group of dialects, spoken in West Flanders and Zeeland ,
6498-575: Is taught in various educational centres in Indonesia, the most important of which is the Erasmus Language Centre (ETC) in Jakarta . Each year, some 1,500 to 2,000 students take Dutch courses there. In total, several thousand Indonesians study Dutch as a foreign language. Owing to centuries of Dutch rule in Indonesia, many old documents are written in Dutch. Many universities therefore include Dutch as
6669-639: Is the Modern English form. Theodiscus was its Latinised form and used as an adjective referring to the Germanic vernaculars of the Early Middle Ages . In this sense, it meant "the language of the common people". The term was used as opposed to Latin , the non -native language of writing and the Catholic Church . It was first recorded in 786, when the Bishop of Ostia writes to Pope Adrian I about
6840-404: Is the case with the ( standardised ) West Frisian language . It is spoken alongside Dutch in the province of Friesland . Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they used to be, especially in the Netherlands. Recent research by Geert Driessen shows that the use of dialects and regional languages among both Dutch adults and youth is in heavy decline. In 1995, 27 percent of
7011-525: Is the sole official language, and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as a mother tongue . Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers. A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a second language . Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of the Dutch Language Union since 2004. The lingua franca of Suriname, however,
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7182-519: The 2006 New Zealand census , 26,982 people, or 0.70 percent of the total population, reported to speak Dutch to sufficient fluency that they could hold an everyday conversation. In contrast to the colonies in the East Indies , from the second half of the 19th century onwards, the Netherlands envisaged the expansion of Dutch in its colonies in the West Indies . Until 1863, when slavery was abolished in
7353-516: The Antwerp side. Cercle Brugge appointed AA Gent reserves coach Bob Peeters as their new manager. It will be Peeters' first experience in the Pro League . This season also brought Cercle's first European attendance in the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League , where they defeated TPS from Finland and reached the third qualifying round where they lost against Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. In November 2012 Peeters
7524-491: The Belgian First Division B and divided into four groups of four teams. The winners of each groups now play a single match to determine the overall playoff winner, with the winner playing the fifth-placed team from playoff 1 in a single match for the final Europa League ticket. Until 2015, a relegation playoff was played between the teams ranked 15th and 16th after the regular season. It consisted of five games between
7695-401: The Belgian Pro League 2009-10 , which was their 30th Belgian championship. Matches are usually played on Saturdays at 20.00; however, some matchdays are played on Wednesdays. Furthermore, in recent years, some games are played on Fridays or during the weekend at different times (e.g., Saturday at 18.00 or Sunday at 13.00 or 20.00), as decided by the owner of television rights. Each team playing
7866-661: The Belgian Second Division following relegation in 1997. Their matricule number is 12. The club plays home games at the 29,042-seat Jan Breydel Stadium , which they share with fierce rivals Club Brugge . Cercle Brugge won their first national title in 1911, and won two more titles (in 1927 and 1930) before the Second World War. The side also won the Belgian Cup in 1927 and in 1985, and have represented Belgium in European tournaments on several occasions. Cercle Brugge
8037-557: The Belgian Second Division was replaced by the Belgian First Division B and the number of teams dropped to eight. Each of the 16 competitors in the Pro League plays every other team twice in the regular season, for a total of 30 matches between August and April. A win earns three points and a draw earns one point. Teams are ranked by total points, then by total wins and finally by goal difference, number of scored goals, number of away goals, and number of away wins. If teams are still level,
8208-564: The Bergakker inscription , found near the Dutch city of Tiel , which may represent a primary record of 5th-century Frankish. Although some place names recorded in Roman texts such as vadam (modern Dutch: wad , English: "mudflat"), could arguably be considered as the oldest single "Dutch" words, the Bergakker inscription yields the oldest evidence of Dutch morphology. However, interpretations of
8379-450: The Brussels and Flemish regions of Belgium . The areas in which they are spoken often correspond with former medieval counties and duchies. The Netherlands (but not Belgium) distinguishes between a dialect and a streektaal (" regional language "). Those words are actually more political than linguistic because a regional language unites a large group of very different varieties. Such is
8550-547: The Cup Winners' Cup final and in 1977–78 won for the second time, while Club Brugge lost the European Cup to Liverpool F.C.. In the Belgian First Division, Club Brugge claimed four titles in the decade, while Anderlecht claimed two and R White Daring Molenbeek (the successor of Daring Club de Bruxelles) with Johan Boskamp and KSK Beveren with goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff each claimed their first Belgian championship. In
8721-548: The High German consonant shift , does not use Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker, has largely abandoned the use of the subjunctive , and has levelled much of its morphology , including most of its case system . Features shared with German, however, include the survival of two to three grammatical genders – albeit with few grammatical consequences – as well as the use of modal particles , final-obstruent devoicing , and (similar) word order . Dutch vocabulary
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#17328487207108892-636: The Jan Breydel Stadium . In 1923, Cercle extended their stadium facilities again, moving 100 metres from their old pitch to a newly built stadium. This ground, later named the Edgard De Smedt Stadium , became Cercle's home for more than 50 years. In 1924, the club changed its name from Cercle Sportif Brugeois to Royal Cercle Sportif Brugeois. The club embarked on a successful period, led by two key players: Belgian record international Florimond Vanhalme and player-coach Louis Saeys. Cercle led
9063-486: The Low Countries , its meaning being largely implicitly provided by the regional orientation of medieval Dutch society: apart from the higher echelons of the clergy and nobility, mobility was largely static and hence while "Dutch" could by extension also be used in its earlier sense, referring to what today would be called Germanic dialects as opposed to Romance dialects , in many cases it was understood or meant to refer to
9234-579: The Low Franconian languages, paired with its sister language Limburgish or East Low Franconian. Its closest relative is the mutually intelligible daughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch are German , English and the un-standardised languages Low German and Yiddish . Dutch stands out in combining some Ingvaeonic characteristics (occurring consistently in English and Frisian and reduced in intensity from west to east over
9405-665: The Proximus League , the Belgian second division after winning against Beerschot 3–2 on aggregate. The winning goal – a penalty kick, was scored by Irvin Cardona , a loaned player from Monaco, in the last minute of the game and thus the season. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules . Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules . Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Note: Please consider that
9576-526: The Randstad , which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects of Rotterdam , The Hague , Amsterdam and Utrecht . In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns of Friesland , where it partially displaced West Frisian in
9747-526: The Southern Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg), developments were different. Under subsequent Spanish , Austrian and French rule , the standardisation of Dutch language came to a standstill. The state, law, and increasingly education used French, yet more than half the Belgian population were speaking a variety of Dutch. In the course of the 19th century, the Flemish Movement stood up for
9918-597: The UEFA Cup , in which they drew the Norwegian side SK Brann . Cercle won the home match 3–2, but lost 4–0 in Bergen . Cercle then lost some important players whom they failed to adequately replace, and were relegated, along with K.V. Mechelen , in 1997. Cercle aimed at an immediate return, but were thwarted early on. They finished their first season in 10th place, and gained only a single place increase in league position over each of
10089-489: The antonym of *walhisk (Romance-speakers, specifically Old French ). The word, now rendered as dietsc (Southwestern variant) or duutsc (Central and Northern Variant), could refer to the Dutch language itself, as well as a broader Germanic category depending on context. During the High Middle Ages " Dietsc / Duutsc " was increasingly used as an umbrella term for the specific Germanic dialects spoken in
10260-471: The continental West Germanic plane) with dominant Istvaeonic characteristics, some of which are also incorporated in German. Unlike German, Dutch (apart from Limburgish) has not been influenced at all by the south to north movement of the High German consonant shift and had some changes of its own. The cumulation of these changes resulted over time in separate, but related standard languages with various degrees of similarities and differences between them. For
10431-434: The differences in vocabulary between Indonesian and Malay. Some regional languages in Indonesia have some Dutch loanwords as well; for example, Sundanese word Katel or "frying pan" origin in Dutch is " ketel ". The Javanese word for "bike/ bicycle " " pit " can be traced back to its origin in Dutch " fiets ". The Malacca state of Malaysia was also colonized by the Dutch in its longest period that Malacca
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#173284872071010602-630: The pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age . The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: East (now extinct), West , and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period . Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots , Frisian , Low German (Old Saxon) and High German . It is characterised by a number of phonological and morphological innovations not found in North or East Germanic. The West Germanic varieties of
10773-419: The third division ). However, it is still not effective as, for example, KSK Beveren finished 18th (last) in 2001–2002, but was saved as KSC Eendracht Aalst (17th) and RWD Molenbeek (10th) were refused their license. Following the 2015–16 season, the number of professional teams in Belgium was brought down to 24, which mostly affected the teams playing at the second level of the Belgian football pyramid as
10944-512: The 14th to 15th century onward, its urban centers ( Deventer , Zwolle , Kampen , Zutphen and Doesburg ) have been increasingly influenced by the western written Dutch and became a linguistically mixed area. From the 17th century onward, it was gradually integrated into the Dutch language area. Dutch Low Saxon used to be at one end of the Low German dialect continuum . However, the national border has given way to dialect boundaries coinciding with
11115-531: The 16th century and is known as Stadsfries ("Urban Frisian"). Hollandic together with inter alia Kleverlandish and North Brabantian , but without Stadsfries, are the Central Dutch dialects . Brabantian is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant , which corresponded mainly to the provinces of North Brabant and southern Gelderland , the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant , as well as Brussels (where its native speakers have become
11286-575: The 1980s and KSK Beveren and KV Mechelen one each. In the 1990s, Belgium's teams performances were diminished in European competitions, with only RSC Anderlecht and Royal Antwerp FC reaching the European Cup Winners' Cup final, respectively in 1989–90 and in 1992–93 . In the home league, RSC Anderlecht took four titles during the decade, while Club Brugge cemented their status as main contender with four titles. The remaining two titles went to Lierse SK and newcomer Racing Genk . The 2000s brought
11457-431: The 1980s, the European successes continued for Belgian clubs with Standard reaching the 1981–82 European Cup Winners' Cup final, Anderlecht winning the 1982–83 UEFA Cup and losing the next UEFA Cup final and KV Mechelen winning the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup . In the domestic league, Anderlecht won their 20th title in 1986–87 , which was also the 4th of the decade. Club Brugge and Standard each won two titles in
11628-531: The 2nd qualifying round. The Belgian Football Association sells the television rights for the Belgian First Division every three years. In 2005, the newly created Belgian TV channel Proximus TV bought the TV rights for a record amount of €36 million per season until 2019–20. In May 2008, the rights were again sold to Belgacom TV in association with both public broadcasters VRT (Dutch) and RTBF (French) for an amount of €45.7 million per season. RTBF and VRT thus received
11799-668: The 7th century. It was replaced in France by Old French (a Romance language with a considerable Old Frankish influence). However, the Old Franconian language did not die out at large, as it continued to be spoken in the Low Countries, and subsequently evolved into what is now called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch in the Low Countries. In fact, Old Frankish could be reconstructed from Old Dutch and Frankish loanwords in Old French. The term Old Dutch or Old Low Franconian refers to
11970-436: The Belgian First Division can be of any nationality and a club can sign as many foreign players as desired. The first club to start a game with 11 foreign players was KSC Lokeren in 2001. Every year, players are elected for Belgian Golden Shoe awards, the highest awards a player can receive in Belgian competitions, but also for Belgian professional football awards . Players with African descent, origin or nationality can claim
12141-509: The Cercle board chose not to extend Tipurić's contract. Harm Van Veldhoven was chosen to replace him, and oversaw three decent but unspectacular seasons for Cercle, brightened by the emergence of the talented Stijn De Smet and Tom De Sutter . When Van Veldhoven was announced as new coach of G. Beerschot , Cercle chose former Anderlecht player and assistant manager Glen De Boeck as his successor. In his debut year, De Boeck surprised with successful attacking and attractive football. Cercle ended
12312-541: The Cup finalist if the Cup winner finished first or second in the league) qualifies for the play-off of the UEFA Europa League . The third-placed team (or the fourth-placed team if the Cup winner finished third in the league) qualifies for the 3rd and last qualifying round and the winner of the game between the play-offs 2 winner and the fourth-placed team (or the fifth-placed team if the Cup winner finished fourth) qualifies for
12483-417: The Dutch adult population spoke a dialect or regional language on a regular basis, but in 2011, that was no more than 11 percent. In 1995, 12 percent of children of primary school age spoke a dialect or regional language, but in 2011, that had declined to four percent. Of the officially recognised regional languages Limburgish is spoken the most (in 2011 among adults 54%, among children 31%) and Dutch Low Saxon
12654-479: The Dutch government remained reluctant to teach Dutch on a large scale for fear of destabilising the colony. Dutch, the language of power, was supposed to remain in the hands of the leading elite. After independence, Dutch was dropped as an official language and replaced by Indonesian , but this does not mean that Dutch has completely disappeared in Indonesia: Indonesian Dutch , a regional variety of
12825-415: The Dutch standard language is largely absent, and speakers of these Dutch dialects will use German or French in everyday speech. Dutch is not afforded legal status in France or Germany, either by the central or regional public authorities, and knowledge of the language is declining among younger generations. As a foreign language , Dutch is mainly taught in primary and secondary schools in areas adjacent to
12996-524: The Dutch standard language, it is not mutually intelligible with Dutch and considered a sister language of Dutch, like English and German. Approximate distribution of native Dutch speakers worldwide: Dutch is an official language of the Netherlands proper (not enshrined in the constitution but in administrative law ), Belgium, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire), Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . Dutch
13167-408: The Dutch, was still spoken by about 500,000 half-blood in Indonesia in 1985. Yet the Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch: words for everyday life as well as scientific and technological terms. One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words, many of which are transliterated to reflect phonetic pronunciation e.g. kantoor "office" in Indonesian
13338-592: The Franks. However, the language did experience developments of its own, such as very early final-obstruent devoicing . In fact, the find at Bergakker indicates that the language may already have experienced this shift during the Old Frankish period. Attestations of Old Dutch sentences are extremely rare. The language is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and loan words from Old Dutch in other languages. The oldest recorded
13509-568: The Netherlands and Flanders . In French-speaking Belgium , over 300,000 pupils are enrolled in Dutch courses, followed by over 23,000 in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia , and about 7,000 in the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (of which 4,550 are in primary school). At an academic level, the largest number of faculties of neerlandistiek can be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and
13680-412: The Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect spoken in and around the German town of Kleve ( Kleverlandish ) is historically and genetically a Low Franconian variety. In North-Western France, the area around Calais was historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish), of which an estimated 20,000 are daily speakers. The cities of Dunkirk , Gravelines and Bourbourg only became predominantly French-speaking by
13851-530: The Netherlands, although there are recognisable differences in pronunciation, comparable to the pronunciation differences between standard British and standard American English. In 1980 the Netherlands and Belgium concluded the Language Union Treaty . This treaty lays down the principle that the two countries must gear their language policy to each other, among other things, for a common system of spelling. Dutch belongs to its own West Germanic sub-group,
14022-537: The Pro League has been drastically changed. Playoffs were introduced after the regular season, the number of teams was decreased from 18 to 16 and the calendar has also been modified, with matches being played during the Christmas holiday . Many already criticized the format and point out the Dutch Eredivisie , where the playoffs are not being played anymore. RSC Anderlecht won the first championship in this new format,
14193-442: The Pro League must have been granted the Belgian professional football license guaranteeing the club has no excessive debts, has a secure stadium, etc. This was introduced in the 2001–02 season to decrease the number of teams in the division and ensure a higher level of professionalism in the clubs playing in the top flight of Belgian football. Originally, clubs that could not get the license were supposed not to be replaced (and sent to
14364-655: The United Kingdom (5 universities). Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years, as the Asian bulk of the Dutch East Indies , the Dutch language has no official status there and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession such as historians, diplomats, lawyers, jurists and linguists/polyglots, as certain law codes are still only available in Dutch. Dutch
14535-603: The West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak Dutch, with the effect that local creoles such as Papiamento and Sranan Tongo which were based not on Dutch but rather other European languages, became common in the Dutch West Indies. However, as most of the people in the Colony of Surinam (now Suriname ) worked on Dutch plantations, this reinforced the use of Dutch as a means for direct communication. In Suriname today, Dutch
14706-466: The appointment proved an uneasy one: language difficulties between the Greek coach and his players were compounded by player injuries, and the club was unexpectedly relegated. Han Grijzenhout was again appointed as coach to get Cercle back to the first division as soon as possible. After only one season, Cercle became champions, ending one point before SK Tongeren . Again, Cercle enjoyed a comfortable period in
14877-652: The area known as the Low Countries goes back further in time, with the Romans referring to the region as Germania Inferior ("Lower" Germania). It is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta near the North Sea . From 1551, the designation Nederlands received strong competition from the name Nederduytsch (literally "Low Dutch", Dutch being used in its archaic sense covering all continental West Germanic languages). It
15048-614: The borders of other standard language areas. In most cases, the heavy influence of the standard language has broken the dialect continuum . Examples are the Gronings dialect spoken in Groningen as well as the closely related varieties in adjacent East Frisia (Germany). Kleverlandish is a dialect spoken in southern Gelderland , the northern tip of Limburg , and northeast of North Brabant (Netherlands), but also in adjacent parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Limburgish ( Limburgs )
15219-472: The case with the Gronings dialect , which is considered a variety of the Dutch Low Saxon regional language, but it is relatively distinct from other Dutch Low Saxon varieties. Also, some Dutch dialects are more remote from the Dutch standard language than some varieties of a regional language are. Within the Netherlands, a further distinction is made between a regional language and a separate language, which
15390-439: The champions, KFC Diest . But in 1971, one year before the end of the five-year-plan, Cercle achieved their goal: they won promotion and were back at the top. Cercle tried immediately to avoid the relegation battle by fortifying their squad, signing Fernand Goyvaerts and Benny Nielsen . Early results saw them win points from both Anderlecht and Club Brugge, respectively champions and vice-champions that season, and they finished
15561-553: The close of the 18th century, with (Hoog)Duytsch establishing itself as the Dutch exonym for German during this same period. In the 19th century Germany saw the rise of the categorisation of dialects, with German dialectologists terming the German dialects spoken in the mountainous south of Germany as Hochdeutsch ("High German"). Subsequently, German dialects spoken in the north were designated as Niederdeutsch ("Low German"). The names for these dialects were calqued by Dutch linguists as Nederduits and Hoogduits . As
15732-515: The club a few months earlier: Albert Van Coile , who had succumbed to injuries sustained in a collision with the goalkeeper during a match against US Tourcoing , and former chairman René de Peellaert , who died from pneumonia which he had caught during Van Coile's funeral . In 1928, goalkeeper Robert Braet emerged as a new star at Cercle: the player, who had only switched from the outfield to goal after an illness, went on to spend his whole career at Cercle, later becoming chairman. Cercle made
15903-492: The club competed with Eendracht Aalst for promotion: they played one another two matches before the end of the season, tied on 41 points, but Aalst with the greater number of victories to their name. Cercle had to win the match to take the lead, and lost it 0–1: but Cercle's youth team coach, André Penninck, had noticed that the Aalst team delegate had made a mistake, switching the names of the substitutes, which meant that, according to
16074-576: The club moved from their football field in Sint-Michiels , which was owned by De Frères, to a pitch in Sint-Andries , which offered better facilities and was closer to Bruges' main railway station in 't Zand square. Cercle achieved their first success in the 1902 Henri Fraeys Cup, defeating Olympique Iris Club Lillois (the predecessor of Lille OSC ) and US Tourcoing . After winning another few friendly cups, Cercle achieved their first big success, winning
16245-413: The course of fifteen centuries. During that period, they forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, and influenced or even replaced Old Saxon spoken in the east (contiguous with the Low German area). On the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in present-day France and Germany. The division into Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, since
16416-535: The declaration of independence of Indonesia, Western New Guinea , the "wild east" of the Dutch East Indies , remained a Dutch colony until 1962, known as Netherlands New Guinea . Despite prolonged Dutch presence, the Dutch language is not spoken by many Papuans, the colony having been ceded to Indonesia in 1963. Dutch-speaking immigrant communities can also be found in Australia and New Zealand. The 2011 Australian census showed 37,248 people speaking Dutch at home. At
16587-585: The development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of the Salian Franks who occupied what is now the southern Netherlands , northern Belgium , part of northern France, and parts of the Lower Rhine regions of Germany. The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused a differentiation with the Central and High Franconian in Germany. The latter would as
16758-469: The devil? ... I forsake the devil"). If only for its poetic content, the most famous Old Dutch sentence is probably Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), is dated to around the year 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester , England . Since the sentence speaks to
16929-541: The end of the 1920–21 season , the number of teams was increased from 12 to 14, with only Uccle Sport , the last-placed team of the first division, being relegated, and the first three teams from the Promotion being promoted ( Standard Club Liégeois , FC Malinois , and RSC Anderlechtois ). From 1921–22 to 1931–32 , the decade was dominated by teams from the province of Antwerp : Beerschot AC , with Raymond Braine , won their first five titles, Antwerp FC their first two and
17100-482: The end of the 19th century. In the countryside, until World War I , many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch, and the Catholic Church continued to preach and teach the catechism in Dutch in many parishes. During the second half of the 19th century, Dutch was banned from all levels of education by both Prussia and France and lost most of its functions as a cultural language. In both Germany and France,
17271-629: The end, the news reached team captain Florimond Vanhalme that Antwerp had lost 3–5, meaning Cercle had won their third and (thus far) final title. Because of this title Cercle were invited to take part in the Coupe des Nations , which is regarded as the predecessor of the Champions League . Cercle could not maintain the results of their championship season, ending 7th in 1931. New title aspirations disappeared completely as Cercle continued to finish in
17442-498: The final game in two legs to determine the winner of the playoffs 2. The winner of the playoffs 2 then plays a home and away game against either the fourth-place or fifth-place team from the playoffs 1 for the final Europa League ticket, with the opponent depending on whether the Belgian Cup winner ended in the top four of the playoff 1 or not. From 2016, the system was changed as now the teams ranked 7 to 16 are joined by six teams from
17613-411: The first champion of Belgium. The first eight titles in Belgian football were all won by FC Liégeois or RC de Bruxelles. There was no promotion and relegation system at the time, but the last two finishers (FC Brugeois and Union d'Ixelles) withdrew and a new club entered the competition ( Athletic and Running Club de Bruxelles ). During the 1896–97 season, SC de Bruxelles withdrew, so the 1897–98 season
17784-518: The first two titles of the 1970s, which gave them their only treble so far (together with the 1968–69 title). 1974–75 was the only season with as many as 20 clubs in the league's history. Belgian clubs started to perform well in European Cups in the 1970s, with Anderlecht winning the 1975–76 European Cup Winners' Cup and Club Brugge losing to Liverpool F.C. in the 1975–76 UEFA Cup final . The following season, Anderlecht lost to Hamburger SV in
17955-400: The flags of each club's player not only indicate one's citizenship ( jus soli principle), but a nationality as well ( jus sanguinis principle). As of matches played 11 June 2011 and according to www.cerclemuseum.be As of matches played 11 June 2011 and according to www.cerclemuseum.be According to www.cerclemuseum.be . Names in italic means that only partial match history for
18126-477: The highest division after only two years. The Second World War made a regular football competition impossible in 1939. Cercle therefore took part in regional championships, in which each team met another multiple times. Cercle, though, had comparatively little competition in its native West Flanders , and lost contact with the high standards maintained in the stronger Antwerp and Brussels regional championships. A national contest resumed in 1941; Cercle finished
18297-530: The home match 3–2, but in Dresden Cercle lost 2–1, losing the confrontation on the away goals rule. Cercle again reached the Belgian cup final in 1986, this time meeting city rivals Club Brugge . Cercle lost 0–3, with two questionable penalties scored by Jean-Pierre Papin . A next high point came in the recruitment of Yugoslav striker Josip Weber in 1988: despite a difficult start in Belgium, Weber proved to be Cercle's best post-war goal scorer, ranking as
18468-415: The imagination, it is often erroneously stated as the oldest Dutch sentence. Old Dutch naturally evolved into Middle Dutch . The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse Dutch writing; during this period a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed. There was at that time no overarching standard language ; Middle Dutch is rather a collective name for
18639-685: The influence of the Burgundian Ducal Court in Dijon ( Brussels after 1477). The dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential around this time. The process of standardisation became much stronger at the start of the 16th century, mainly based on the urban dialect of Antwerp . The 1585 fall of Antwerp to the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where the Dutch Republic declared its independence from Spain. This influenced
18810-402: The key striker and they dominated the Belgian football over the next 9 years with 6 more titles, with KV Mechelen (in 1947–48 ) and FC Liégeois (in 1951–52 and 1952–53 ) claiming the remaining titles. The Belgian Golden Shoe award was introduced in 1954, rewarding the best player in the first division for the past calendar year, thus over two half seasons. In the late 1950s Standard lifted
18981-548: The language now known as Dutch. In the Low Countries Dietsch or its Early Modern Dutch form Duytsch as an endonym for Dutch gradually went out of common use and was gradually replaced by the Dutch endonym Nederlands . This designation (first attested in 1482) started at the Burgundian court in the 15th century, although the use of neder , laag , bas , and inferior ("nether" or "low") to refer to
19152-516: The last five-years. The competition was ranked 3rd when the UEFA first published their ranking in 1979 and also the next year in 1980, which is the best ranking the Belgian First Division has ever achieved. The first league in Belgian football was held in 1895–96 as a round-robin tournament with seven teams: Antwerp FC , FC Brugeois , FC Liégeois , RC de Bruxelles , Léopold Club de Bruxelles , SC de Bruxelles , and Union d'Ixelles . FC Liégeois became
19323-411: The league five times. Anderlecht and Genk won the title on the other occasions. Union Saint-Gilloise came close to shocking the footballing world by almost winning the league in 2021–22 . In their first season at the top flight in 48 years, they started the play-offs in first place, but came just short of denying Club Brugge their third consecutive title. Starting with the 2009–10 season, the format of
19494-418: The league midway through the 1925–26 season , but player injuries led to poor results that saw them finish in fifth place. Several important players left Cercle after this season, leaving hopes low for the 1926–27 campaign, but the year saw Cercle achieve their second national championship on the penultimate matchday with a thrilling 6–5 win over Daring Bruxelles . The victory was overshadowed by two deaths at
19665-412: The league. Until this season, where two teams had the same number of points the one with fewer defeats was ranked higher; under Antwerp's scheme, the team with the greater number of victories placed higher. Thanks to the changed rule Cercle finished ahead of Thor Waterschei , who would have placed above them under the previous rule. Ironically, Antwerp became victims of their own proposal: Standard obtained
19836-618: The least (adults 15%, children 1%). The decline of the West Frisian language in Friesland occupies a middle position (adults 44%, children 22%). Dialects are most often spoken in rural areas, but many cities have a distinct city dialect. For example, the city of Ghent has very distinct "g", "e" and "r" sounds that greatly differ from its surrounding villages. The Brussels dialect combines Brabantian with words adopted from Walloon and French . Some dialects had, until recently, extensions across
20007-525: The lower league, finishing their first season there in seventh place. The next four seasons brought more mediocre league positions, until in 1951 the KBVB revealed plans to create a new second division. Clubs in the current second tier were required to finish eighth to remain in the second level; Cercle ended in 15th place that season, leaving them even further away from the top flight. Cercle remained in this third tier until 1956, when they won their league. They spent
20178-457: The match paper, Aalst had ended the match playing illegally with two goalkeepers . Cercle lodged a complaint with the Belgian football association, who confirmed Aalst's 0–1 win, and also dismissed a first appeal. Cercle then made their second and final possible appeal, and on this instance ordered the football association to apply the rules. On 21 June 1968, Cercle received the news that the decision had been overturned, and they would be promoted to
20349-449: The middle of the league over the next several seasons. The experienced players who had helped achieve the title retired or left the team, and the youngsters who replaced them could not match their talent. The downward spiral reached a low with relegation to the Belgian Second Division in 1936. Cercle took the opportunity to make sweeping changes, appointing a new coach and board. The changes proved successful, and Cercle won promotion back to
20520-437: The modern standard languages . In this age no standard languages had yet developed, while a perfect West Germanic dialect continuum remained present; the division reflects the contingent future contribution dialect groups would have to the later languages. The early form of Dutch was a set of Franconian dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the 5th century. These happened to develop through Middle Dutch to Modern Dutch over
20691-519: The national title in the 1910–11 season . Cercle ended a single point ahead of their main rivals FC Bruges , after their confrontation on the season's last matchday ended in a 1–1 draw. Three years later, Belgian football was devastated by World War I : Cercle lost two first-team players, Louis Baes and Joseph Evrard, and their stadium and facilities sustained heavy damage. Former player Alphonse Six also died. Cercle resumed competitive football in 1919 with an almost completely new team. Louis Saeys
20862-531: The next four seasons. In 2002–03 the board chose a new chairman, former Standaard Boekhandel director Frans Schotte , and a new coach, former player Jerko Tipurić , who had also been coach in Cercle's 1996–97 relegation season. The new staff helped Cercle to achieve promotion once more in 2003. The 2003–4 season saw newly signed players Harold Meyssen and Nordin Jbari proving instrumental in avoiding relegation, and
21033-466: The next season once again battling relegation, this time with more success, though their second season back in the second tier went less well. The club secured only nine points in the season's first half, avoiding relegation only with a win under coach Louis Versyp in the season's last match. A few weeks later Versyp was replaced by the Frenchman Edmond Delfour . This replacement inaugurated
21204-451: The next three titles before CS Brugeois won their first title, finishing one point ahead their rival of FC Brugeois. At the end of the 1907–08 season, the number of teams in the first division was increased from 10 to 12 clubs, with Promotion champion RC de Gand and runner-up ESC Forest being promoted while no first division was relegated. As World War I approached, Daring Club de Bruxelles confirmed its status of challenger, even winning
21375-526: The original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version. Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined, and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English, and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them. Dutch, like English, has not undergone
21546-530: The play-downs. During the season it was obvious that Cercle could not compete with other teams any more due to their financial status and the fact that many of the other teams had foreign investors. Cercle also began to search for an investor. On 15 February 2017 Cercle found in Dmitry Rybolovlev a partner to continue their existence in the future. Dimitri Rybolovlev is now the majority shareholder and owner of Cercle. On 10 March 2018, Cercle became champion in
21717-517: The predominant colloquial language out of the area's 22 million Dutch-speakers. Limburgish , spoken in both Belgian Limburg and Netherlands Limburg and in adjacent parts in Germany, is considered a dialect in Belgium, while having obtained the official status of regional language in the Netherlands. Limburgish has been influenced by the Ripuarian varieties like the Colognian dialect , and has had
21888-411: The provinces of Gelderland , Flevoland , Friesland and Utrecht . This group, which is not Low Franconian but instead Low Saxon and close to neighbouring Low German, has been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status of streektaal ( regional language ) according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . It is regarded as Dutch for a number of reasons. From
22059-552: The regular season enter the championship playoff, with the first-placed team winning the championship of Belgium. Each team plays their opponents twice and the teams are ranked by points, points from rounding, wins, etc. as in the regular season. Until 2016, the teams ranked 7 to 14 after the regular season enter the playoffs 2, with teams ranked 7th, 9th, 12th, and 14th entering group A and teams ranked 8th, 10th, 11th, and 13th entering group B. In each group, each team plays each of its three opponents twice. The winner of each group played
22230-547: The regular season. Play-offs I are contested by the top-six clubs in the regular season, with each club playing each other twice. The teams finishing in 15th and 16th place are relegated directly, however, the 14th place team plays a promotion-relegation play-off against the 3rd place team of the Challenger Pro League. The competition was created in 1895 by the Royal Belgian Football Association and
22401-466: The relegation playoff ceased to exist, as now the 16th-place team relegates directly, whereas the 15th placed team takes part in the Europa League playoff. The 2015–16 Belgian Pro League was an exception as during that season the 15th placed team did not take part in any playoff, with the season for that team ending after the regular season. From 2023 onwards, the relegation play-off was played between
22572-509: The rest of the text lack any consensus. The Franks emerged in the southern Netherlands ( Salian Franks ) and central Germany ( Ripuarian Franks ), and later descended into Gaul . The name of their kingdom survives in that of France. Although they ruled the Gallo-Romans for nearly 300 years, their language, Frankish , became extinct in most of France and was replaced by later forms of the language throughout Luxembourg and Germany in around
22743-423: The rights of Dutch speakers, mostly referred to as "Flemish". However, the dialect variation was a serious disadvantage in the face of the standardised francophony . Since standardisation is a lengthy process, Dutch-speaking Belgium associated itself with the standard language that had already developed in the Netherlands over the centuries. Therefore, the situation in Belgium is essentially no different from that in
22914-477: The rights of all Pro League competitions for the next five seasons from 2020–21 until 2024–25, with both public broadcasters Play 4 (Dutch) and RTBF (French) lands the rights for highlights again. Only clubs with more than 50 seasons in first division listed: A total of 75 clubs have played in the first division since its creation in 1895. Among those 75 clubs, 44 still exist and the 30 other clubs either went into liquidation or merged with another club. Players in
23085-401: The rights to show summaries of first division games, as well as rights to a weekly magazine on the competition. Belgacom TV received the rights to show each game in the competition. On 12 June 2020 Aser's Eleven Sports and the Pro League reached an agreement on the new domestic and international media contract for the coming five years. As exclusive global rights holder, Eleven Sports will air
23256-517: The same branch of the West Germanic languages as Old English (i.e. Anglo-Frisian ) and are therefore genetically more closely related to English and Scots than to Dutch. The different influences on the respective languages, however, particularly that of Norman French on English and Dutch on West Frisian, have rendered English quite distinct from West Frisian, and West Frisian less distinct from Dutch than from English. Although under heavy influence of
23427-517: The season could be retrieved. This prize is awarded by the club's supporters, in an election held by d'Echte , a Cercle Brugge supporters' association. The election is held in two rounds. At the last home game before the winter break, and at the last home game of the season, supporters can receive a paper and vote for three players. The player with most votes after the second round wins the Pop Poll . The main criteria taken into account are performances on
23598-533: The season fourth in the top division, their best post-war ranking. The 2009–10 season saw them ending as runners-up in the Belgian Cup final , which was enough to qualify for the Europa League . Shortly afterwards, manager Glen De Boeck surprisingly signed a contract with Germinal Beerschot , only one month after having signed a new 4-year-deal with Cercle Brugge. De Boeck declared to the press that he only had some questions about his lawn mower for Beerschot president Herman Kesters, but had finally ended up signing for
23769-689: The season in fifth place, the first of a succession of secure midtable finishes. In 1975 the club left the Edgard De Smedt Stadium goodbye to move to the Olympia Stadium , which was later renamed the Jan Breydel Stadium during Euro 2000 . Between 1967 and 1977, Cercle had had only two coaches, Urbain Braems and Han Grijzenhout , but Grijzenhout left after a lucrative offer from SC Lokeren . Cercle appointed Lakis Petropoulos as new coach, but
23940-544: The season last but one in the league. Usually this would have meant relegation, but the KBVB ruled that the circumstances of the war, which limited training opportunities and youth development, meant no team should be relegated. Cercle were made to play one match behind closed doors during the 1943 season , after an incident during a game against Anderlecht . Supporters, furious with referee De Braeckel's decisions to annul two Cercle goals for unclear reasons and to award Anderlecht
24111-404: The season, no club was relegated and the number of clubs was increased from 14 to 16. The next season , Liersche SK lost three key players (two of them in a bomb attack and the other one due to a heavy injury sustained on the pitch) and they ended at 3rd place while the neighbours of KV Mechelen became champion for the first time in their history. In 1943–44 , Antwerp FC won the title. The league
24282-482: The second division to the third. Lantsoght launched a lawsuit against the KBVB, which he won in June 1967, but the damage was done: Cercle remained in the third division, losing many of their players, and were not able to achieve promotion immediately. In 1967, Cercle appointed Urbain Braems as head coach . Braems designed an ambitious plan to restore Cercle to the top division within five years. During Braem's first season
24453-415: The second division, Cercle ended 5th out of 17. The next season (2016–17), the competition was renamed to 1B and contained 8 teams. Manager Vincent Euvrard was sacked after a disappointing start and was replaced by José Riga . Cercle ended 7th in the competition and had to play a relegation poule with Tubize , Oud-Heverlee Leuven and Lommel United to secure their place in 1B. Lommel United ended last in
24624-415: The second division. In July of the same year, Royal Cercle Sportif Brugeois changed their name to Cercle Brugge K.S.V. Cercle were immediately able to play a role in the second division title contest, thanks to a successful transfer policy. After 20 matches Cercle led the league, only to finish the season fourth, four points behind champions AS Oostende . Next season, Cercle again finished four points behind
24795-428: The second place, with Antwerp having equal points but fewer victories (but also fewer defeats). This spell in the top division saw Cercle enjoy little success, and in 1965–66 they finished last behind Berchem . Worse, the team was accused of corruption by Lierse player Bogaerts, who said Cercle's vice-president Paul Lantsoght had engaged in bribery. The Belgian football association sentenced Cercle to relegation from
24966-451: The set of Franconian dialects (i.e. West Germanic varieties that are assumed to have evolved from Frankish ) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages , from around the 5th to the 12th century. Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French. Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in
25137-485: The small club of Liersche SK (led by striker Bernard Voorhoof ) won their first one in 1931–32. The challengers at the time were CS Brugeois (two titles in that period), Union Saint-Gilloise (one title), Daring Club de Bruxelles and Standard Club Liégeois. Starting 25 December 1932, Union Saint-Gilloise had a record 60 games unbeaten run in the championship (spanning three seasons), winning the 1932–33 , 1933–34 , and 1934–35 titles. The rival of Union during this period
25308-432: The team's top scorer from 1989 to 1994 (when he left for Anderlecht) successively. Weber was also national top scorer from 1992 until 1994. Another prominent player, Romanian record international Dorinel Munteanu , signed for Cercle in the 1990s. In 1996, Cercle once more reached the national cup final, again facing Club Brugge: this time, Cercle lost 2–1. Nonetheless, Club's double victory meant Cercle still qualified for
25479-411: The teams ranked 13th and 16th after the regular season. After the relegation play-off battle, two teams are relegated directly to the Challenger Pro League and one team will play against 3rd place of Challenger Pro League due to avoid relegation. For the 2010–11 season, the Belgian champion and the runner-up qualify for the 3rd UEFA Champions League qualifying round (of 4). The Belgian Cup winner (or
25650-492: The teams who had in 1939 made up the top division. Most teams, though, were unable to participate, and the Von Rundstedt Offensive spelled the end of the initiative. The end ranking of this competition has not even been archived by the Belgian football association. Cercle could not avoid relegation in the first season after the war and, despite being favorites for promotion the following season, struggled to compete in
25821-534: The time are generally split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). It appears that the Frankish tribes fit primarily into the Istvaeonic dialect group with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest, which are still seen in modern Dutch. The Frankish language itself is not directly attested, the only possible exception being
25992-497: The title in 1911–12 and 1913–14 . Only Union Saint-Gilloise could face them in that period, winning the 1912–13 championship with a better goal difference. Since 1911–12, two clubs are relegated each year to the Promotion and two clubs from the Promotion are promoted. During World War I, the football championship was suspended. It resumed in 1919–20 with FC Brugeois claiming their first title after five second places, among which were two lost final games and one lost test-match. At
26163-406: The title three consecutive times (resp. between 1958–59 and 1960–61 while at RFC Liégeois and between 1991–92 and 1993–94 while at Cercle Brugge KSV ). Wegria eventually finished top scorer a 4th time in 1962–63 still with RFC Liégeois, making him the second player with the most top scorer titles in the history of Belgian First Division top scorers. The introduction of this title of honour in 1945
26334-410: The title was Dutchman Jan Mulder in 1966–67 with RSC Anderlecht. Since then, 25 foreign players have finished top scorer. Only three foreign players claimed the trophy more than once: Josip Weber (twice as a Croat and once as a Belgian), Austrian Alfred Riedl and most recently Frenchman Jérémy Perbet . Dutch language Dutch ( endonym : Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] )
26505-477: The top division, climaxing with a Belgian Cup win in 1985. The final saw Cercle face SK Beveren ; the score was 1–1 after 90 minutes, and 30 minutes' added time produced no further goals, so the match went to penalties . Beveren player Paul Lambrichts kicked the last penalty of the series against the crossbar, and Cercle celebrated. For the first time since 1930 , Cercle qualified for an official European tournament. They drew Dynamo Dresden as opponents, winning
26676-463: The transition between them was very gradual. One of the few moments when linguists can detect something of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. The development of the Dutch language is illustrated by the following sentence in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch: Among the Indo-European languages , Dutch is grouped within the Germanic languages , meaning it shares
26847-539: The trophy for the first time in 1957–58 and they eventually became one of Anderlecht's biggest rivals in the league (until their 8th title in 1982–83 ). The other titles in the late 1950s were won by Antwerp FC and Anderlecht. In the 1960s, the Anderlecht team of Paul Van Himst claimed six titles (with the Belgian record of five consecutives titles between 1963–64 and 1967–68 ), while Standard claimed three and Lierse one. Standard, with key player Wilfried Van Moer , won
27018-482: The two teams. The 15th-placed team started the playoffs with three points whereas the 16th-placed team started from zero. The loser of the relegation playoff was relegated to the second division. The winner of that playoff had to enter the Belgian Second Division final round with three teams from the second division. The winner of this Final Round played in the First Division the season thereafter. From 2015 to 2023,
27189-477: The urban dialects of the province of Holland . In 1637, a further important step was made towards a unified language, when the Statenvertaling , the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created that people from all over the new republic could understand. It used elements from various, even Dutch Low Saxon , dialects but was predominantly based on the urban dialects of Holland of post 16th century. In
27360-453: Was Daring Club de Bruxelles . They claimed the next two championships. Following the come-back of player Raymond Braine to Beerschot, the Antwerp club won the last two titles before World War II . On 10 May 1940, German troops invaded Belgium and the seasons 1939–40 and 1940–41 were suspended. The competition resumed in September 1941 and Liersche SK won their second title. At the end of
27531-577: Was fired for poor results. Despite attracting star player Eiður Guðjohnsen , he failed to get Cercle away from that last place and was replaced by Foeke Booy . The team still struggled to avoid relegation. After the bad results they sacked Foeke Booy and the new trainer was Lorenzo Staelens . Lorenzo Staelens would be replaced by Arnar Vidarsson in their last season in first division. A few months later Vidarsson would also be replaced by Dennis Van Wijk , Cercle eventually lost Play-Off III to SK Lierse and relegate to second division. The first season in
27702-459: Was first won by FC Liégeois . Of the 74 clubs to have competed in the first division since its creation, 16 have been crowned champions of Belgium. Anderlecht is the most successful league club with 34 titles, followed by Club Brugge (19), Union Saint-Gilloise (11) and Standard Liège (10). It is currently ranked 8th in the UEFA rankings of leagues based on performances in European competitions over
27873-508: Was founded on 9 April 1899 as Cercle Sportif Brugeois by former students of the Saint Francis Xavier Institute, colloquially known as De Frères (English: The Friars) in Bruges. Originally, the organisation focused on five sports: football , cricket , lawn tennis , running and cycling . Cercle Brugge became a member of the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1900 and were awarded matricule number 12. The same year
28044-758: Was maybe a little too late for first winner Bert De Cleyn as this player has scored the most goals in the history of the Belgian First Division since 1895 (350 goals in 395 games between 1932 and 1954 with KV Mechelen ), though he won the top scorer title only once. Other players in the top ten of the all-time top scorer ranking in the Belgian First Division include Joseph Mermans (three times top scorer, 339 goals overall in 382 games with RSC Anderlecht), Bernard Voorhoof ( Belgium national football team top scorer, 281 goals in 473 matches with Lierse SK), Rik Coppens (three times top scorer), Erwin Vandenbergh and Paul Van Himst (Belgium top scorer with Bernard Voorhoof, three times top scorer). The first foreign player to claim
28215-429: Was organised with one league of 11 teams. Athletic and Running Club de Bruxelles withdrew during the season and, from the 1906 season on, a system of promotion and relegation was introduced with the winner of the second division replacing the last-placed team of the first division. In 1906–07 , Union Saint-Gilloise won their fourth consecutive title as RC de Bruxelles had from 1899–1900 to 1902–03. Both clubs claimed
28386-403: Was played by five clubs. In the seasons 1898–99 and 1899–1900 , the football association introduced a new format with two leagues at the top level and a final game in two legs. The format changed back to one league with nine clubs in 1900–01 , then again to two leagues from 1901–02 to 1903–04 , this time with a final round among the top two teams of each league. In 1904–05 , the championship
28557-494: Was replaced by Afrikaans , a separate but partially mutually intelligible daughter language of Dutch. Afrikaans, depending on the definition used, may be considered a sister language , spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia , and evolving from Cape Dutch dialects. In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname , and spoken as
28728-520: Was suspended again in 1944–45 because of World War II. The league resumed play in 1945–46 with a title for KV Mechelen. At the start of that season, the First Division went from 16 to 19 clubs, with three clubs promoted from the First Division and no team being relegated. The top scorer award was also introduced that season, won by Bert De Cleyn from KV Mechelen. Two seasons later, five clubs were relegated and two promoted. In 1946–47 , RSC Anderlechtois won their first championship with Jef Mermans as
28899-468: Was the only player to remain in the team from before the war. Expectations were low, but the club finished third in the league. In 1921 the club raised a monument in remembrance of those affiliated with Cercle who had died in WWI: the unveiling was marred by tragedy, when a biplane scheduled to fly over the stadium as a tribute crashed, killing its two passengers. The monument still exists and now stands in front of
29070-517: Was under foreign control. In the 19th century, the East Indies trade started to dwindle, and with it the importance of Malacca as a trading post. The Dutch state officially ceded Malacca to the British in 1825. It took until 1957 for Malaya to gain its independence. Despite this, the Dutch language is rarely spoken in Malacca or Malaysia and only limited to foreign nationals able to speak the language. After
29241-455: Was used in the Dutch East Indies (now mostly Indonesia ) by a limited educated elite of around 2% of the total population, including over 1 million indigenous Indonesians, until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards. About a fifth of the Indonesian language can be traced to Dutch, including many loan words . Indonesia's Civil Code has not been officially translated, and
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