2018–19 Belgian First Division B

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 season was impacted by the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal which most notably involved Mechelen, as it was unclear upon completion of the season whether and how any involved clubs would be sanctioned and what the effect would be on the number of promotion and relegation places. As a result, Mechelen won the title and celebrated promotion on 16 March 2019, following a win over Beerschot Wilrijk in the promotion-playoffs, although the verdict on the investigation was still pending. End of May, Mechelen was found guilty and not allowed to be promoted, with runners-up Beerschot Wilrijk taking their spot instead. Mechelen appealed the decision at the Belgian Court for Sportsarbitration, which confirmed the verdict of guilt in July, but also ruled that according to the rules of the Belgian Football FA Mechelen could not be penalized with relegation back to the Belgian First Division A as the violation occurred during a previous season, hence Mechelen was allowed to keep its promotion.

• Mechelen were relegated from the 2017–18 Belgian First Division A after finishing in last place and return to the second level of Belgian football for the first time since the 2006–07 season.
• Lommel were promoted as 2017–18 Belgian First Amateur Division winners, immediately returning after being relegated from the 2016–17 Belgian First Division B.

• Cercle Brugge won the promotion play-offs against Beerschot-Wilrijk and was thus promoted after three seasons at the second level.
• Lierse went bankrupt and dissolved as a team. Tubize had finished in last place in the relegation playoffs but were saved from relegation as a result of the bankruptcy of Lierse.

Beerschot Wilrijk

Lommel

Westerlo

Mechelen

Roeselare

Tubize

Union SG

OH Leuven

Locations of the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B teams

The winners of the opening tournament and the closing tournament will meet in a two-legged match to determine the division champion, who will promote to the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A. The team finishing highest in the aggregate table will be allowed to play the second leg at home. In case a single team wins both the opening and the closing tournament, that team will be promoted automatically and no play-offs will be organized.

On 9 November 2018, Mechelen won the opening tournament and was therefore assured of playing at least the promotion play-offs. On the final day of the closing tournament, Mechelen only managed a draw away to Lommel, allowing Beerschot Wilrijk to win the closing period. If Mechelen had won they would have assured direct promotion, instead they had to face Beerschot-Wilrijk in the promotion play-offs.

The first leg saw both teams having chances, with goalkeeper Michael Verrips making big saves in the first half to deny attempts by Erwin Hoffer and Gertjan De Mets, while in the second half Mechelen failed to take advantage of a red card for Jan Van den Bergh. In the second leg, Beerschot-Wilrijk again saw a player sent off following a vicious tackle by Marius Noubissi already after 32 minutes. Nikola Storm opened the score for Mechelen just after the start of the second half, but ten-men Beerschot-Wilrijk managed the equalizer through penalty kick and looked on its way to promote via the away goals rule, when substitute Clément Tainmont scored a volley just two minutes from time to win the match and send Mechelen back to the highest division after just one season in the Belgian First Division B. With that, Beerschot Wilrijk lost the promotion play-offs for the second consecutive year. Several weeks later, Mechelen was found guilty of match-fixing and not allowed to promote as a result, with Beerschot-Wilrijk taking their spot. Mechelen appealed the decision successfully, as per the rules of the Belgian FA they could no longer be punished for events of more than one year in the past.

9 March 2019 (2019-03-09)

20:30

Beerschot Wilrijk	0–0	Mechelen
Prychynenko  49' Van den Bergh  54'  60'	Report	Van Damme  31' Cornet  81' Engvall  90+2' Lemoine  90+3'

Olympic Stadium, Antwerp

Attendance: 10,700

Referee: Erik Lambrechts

16 March 2019 (2019-03-16)

16:00

Mechelen	2–1	Beerschot Wilrijk
Storm46' Tainmont88' Engvall  90+3'	Report	Noubissi  32' De Jonghe  45' Vanzeir64' (pen.) Vanzeir  64' Grisez  90+3' Prychynenko  90+4'

Achter de Kazerne, Mechelen

Attendance: 16,298

Referee: Lawrence Visser

Mechelen won 2–1 on aggregate.

The four bottom teams in the aggregate table took part in the relegation play-offs in which they kept half of the points they collected during the overall regular season (rounded up). As a result, the teams started with the following points before the playoff: Roeselare 17 points, Lommel 16, OH Leuven 15, and Tubize 12. As the points of all teams were rounded up, the half-point deduction was irrelevant in the case of ties. Tubize started the play-offs strongest, with 2 draws and a win, resulting in no team being safe after three matchdays. On matchday 4, Lommel became the first team to be certain of avoiding relegation following a 3–0 home win over Tubize. Standings after that matchday were Lommel at 23, OH Leuven at 22, Roeselare at 19, and Tubize at 17 (with Lommel ahead of Tubize in case of ties due to finishing higher in the regular season aggregate table). On matchday 5, Tubize was relegated as they first lost at home to OH Leuven 0–3, after which they needed Roeselare to drop points at Lommel two days later. A 0–1 away win of Roeselare meant Tubize was relegated to the Belgian First Amateur Division and the final matchday was irrelevant, only for Roeselare to overtake Lommel in the final standings.

As of completion of the regular season.

5 goals (6 players)

4 goals (3 players)

3 goals (16 players)

2 goals (17 players)

1 goal (32 players)

1 own goal (8 players)

Upon completion of the regular season a team of the season award was compiled, based upon the results of the team of the week results throughout the season, constructed based on nominations from managers, assistant-managers, journalists and analysts. The results were announced from 22 March 2019, with one player revealed each day.