169-521: 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
338-747: 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
507-578: 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
676-467: 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
845-601: 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
1014-495: A " Zwanze derby" with R.W.D. Molenbeek , which stems from their old rivalry with Daring Club Brussels , that has been encapsulated in the Brussels play Bossemans et Coppenolle . However, the two are said to have a love-hate relationship, having both experienced financial difficulty in the modern era, and organised friendlies together in support. Union have another Brussels city rivalry with neighbour RSC Anderlecht , although
1183-561: A 0–2 away victory. 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. Five players from the Union Saint-Gilloise finished top scorers in the Belgian First Division A Two players from
1352-524: A 1–0 win over Royal Antwerp in the final . In the Champions' Play-offs, Union suffered four consecutive defeats which saw them drop to third place behind rivals Anderlecht and Club Brugge, followed by two wins against Antwerp and two draws against the other two title contenders which minimized their chances to secure the title for the third attempt in a row. Following victories over Cercle Brugge and Genk, Union finished as runners-up, just one point behind
1521-462: 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
1690-735: A coaching job in France with Amiens SC , Thomas Christiansen was brought in as his replacement, with Union again falling marginally short in both the Opening and Closing Tournaments. However, there was to be no place in Play-Offs 2 this time, as these were abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the 2019–20 season end prematurely in March. The summer of 2020 saw Felice Mazzu appointed as first-team coach, assisted by Karel Geraerts , with
1859-576: 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
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#17327766137502028-467: 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
2197-523: A few years after its foundation, Union quickly became a superpower and supplier to the Belgian team for the Olympic Games in 1920. The 1935 success was the club's eleventh, a Belgian record that would not be broken until the emergence of Anderlecht in the 1960s. Seven of those titles came before the outbreak of World War One in 1914. In the early 1900s, Union also had a dominant spell in some of
2366-582: 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
2535-670: 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
2704-420: 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
2873-517: A number of interesting young talents signed from lower-division football both in Belgium and abroad, such as Dante Vanzeir , Deniz Undav , Christian Burgess , Teddy Teuma , and from Virton following that club's denial of a First Division B licence, goalkeeper Anthony Moris and Loïc Lapoussin . On 13 March 2021, after defeating R.W.D. Molenbeek 2–1 at home, Union were promoted back to the Belgian First Division A. This marked its first appearance in
3042-532: A point behind on 45. Union would be champions if they won their game against Club Brugge, and Antwerp did not win theirs against Genk. No other scenario would crown Union as champions. On the final matchday of the Play-offs, Union were leading 1–0 at home against Club Brugge in the 89th minute, and with Racing Genk leading Royal Antwerp 2–1 at the Cegeka Arena , Union were on the way to being champions, with
3211-524: 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
3380-413: 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
3549-456: 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
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#17327766137503718-473: 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
3887-522: 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
4056-479: 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
4225-424: 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,
4394-613: 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
4563-421: 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
4732-517: 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
4901-552: 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
5070-537: 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
5239-467: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. Royale Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise [y.njɔ̃ sɛ̃.ʒil.waz] , commonly referred to as Union Saint-Gilloise and abbreviated as RUSG , is a Belgian professional football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles , in Brussels , although since the 1920s, it has been based at
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5408-506: 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
5577-466: 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
5746-473: 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
5915-537: 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
6084-587: 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
6253-522: 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 ")
6422-487: 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
6591-514: 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
6760-585: 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
6929-637: 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 ,
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7098-595: 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
7267-662: 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
7436-404: 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
7605-530: 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,
7774-531: 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
7943-447: The Belgian First Division A , marking their first appearance in top-flight football in 48 years. The following year, they finished top of the table at the end of the regular season, the first club in Belgian history to do so the season after promotion to the top flight. Union would go on to finish second in the champions play off, securing Champions League qualification for the first time ever in club history, and after being eliminated in
8112-427: 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
8281-469: 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
8450-638: 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,
8619-578: 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
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#17327766137508788-400: 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
8957-671: The Challenge International du Nord , the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz and the Coupe Jean Dupuich between 1898 and 1925. The team colours are blue and yellow and its matricule is 10. The team was traditionally popular with the working-class communities of central Brussels (the Marolles) and southern Brussels. On 13 March 2021, after defeating local rivals R.W.D. Molenbeek , Union were promoted back to
9126-559: 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
9295-554: 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
9464-549: The Joseph Marien Stadium in the neighbouring municipality of Forest . The club is one of the most successful in the history of Belgian football. The club won eleven Belgian championships between 1904 and 1935, making it the most successful Belgian club before World War II , but fell into decline after relegation from the First Division in 1973. The Apaches took part in the first European competitions,
9633-493: 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
9802-591: 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
9971-531: 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
10140-543: 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
10309-908: The UEFA Champions League at the hands of Rangers after a 2–0 "home" win at OH Leuven 's Den Dreef stadium and a 3–0 loss at Ibrox , Union dropped into the UEFA Europa League and won their group, earning four victories from their six games against Union Berlin , Braga and Malmö . A last-16 reunion with Union Berlin saw the Brussels club draw 3–3 away in Berlin, and win their "home" return 3–0 at Anderlecht's Lotto Park . The quarter-finals had them paired with another Bundesliga side in Bayer Leverkusen , who defeated them 5–2 on aggregate (1–1 away, 1–4 home). Domestically, Union continued their remarkable form from
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#173277661375010478-497: 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
10647-471: 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
10816-434: 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
10985-642: 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
11154-419: 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
11323-476: The "half-points" rule, as Union had needed their tally from the regular season rounded-up. Club Brugge won the midweek return 1–0 at the Jan Breydel through a rebounded own goal from goalkeeper Anthony Moris to take a three-point lead with two games to go. A late equaliser from Casper Nielsen was disallowed by VAR for offside. Club Brugge clinched the league crown in their next (and penultimate) game against Royal Antwerp, despite Union beating Anderlecht for
11492-459: 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
11661-476: 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
11830-513: 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
11999-431: 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
12168-534: 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
12337-688: 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
12506-436: 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
12675-690: The Belgian Promotion division, the fourth tier. In the sixties, Union began to struggle, bouncing between the First and Second Division several times. In 1973, the club dropped out of the First Division and would not return for 48 years. Two years later in 1975, would come another relegation to the Third Division for the first time. Union bounced back to the Second Division after just one season, but an even bigger decline followed at
12844-484: 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
13013-417: 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
13182-490: 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
13351-415: 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
13520-531: 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
13689-408: 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
13858-577: The Fairs Cup in the 1950s and 60s. After going into first place in October, Union were top for 200 consecutive days. Having been voted Belgian Coach of the Year, Mazzu departed for cross-town rivals Anderlecht and was replaced by his assistant Karel Geraerts . Anderlecht's move meant they had to pay Union compensation, sparking ill-feeling between the two Brussels clubs, Despite an early exit from
14027-609: The Fourth Division, earning Union a reprieve via a play-off, which they won 1–0 against RFC de Liege. Union went on to finish a creditable third in the 2014–15 Belgian Third Division , but again would prosper from other clubs’ problems, as the top two of Cappellen and Sprimont Comblain Sport both passed up applying for a Second Division licence, so Union were promoted in their place. On 21 May 2018, Tony Bloom , chairman of English Premier League side, Brighton & Hove Albion
14196-602: 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
14365-576: 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
14534-412: 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
14703-539: 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,
14872-593: The Opening Tournament which concluded at Christmas, and regrouped to take third behind Beerschot Wilrijk in the Closing Tournament. Despite not reaching the final, Union's reward was to be given one of the three places allocated for Division 1B teams in Play-Offs 2 , for the right to compete for a place in the UEFA Europa League . Placed in a group of six with every other opponent being from
15041-550: 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,
15210-442: 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
15379-482: The Pro League trophy being flown via helicopter to the Joseph Marien Stadium. However, three late goals from Club Brugge - two in stoppage-time - and a late Antwerp equaliser from Toby Alderweireld sent the crown Antwerp's way. Union's second consecutive title-race collapse saw them drop to third place which qualified them to the Europa League play-off round . Owing to a third-place finish in
15548-504: The Union Saint-Gilloise finished top scorers in the Belgian Second Division [REDACTED] Dante Vanzeir / [REDACTED] Georges Mikautadze - RFC Seraing ( 29 Goals ) A player from the Union Saint-Gilloise finishes top scorers in the Europa League 2022-2023 [REDACTED] Victor Boniface / [REDACTED] Marcus Rashford - [REDACTED] Manchester United ( 6 Goals ) Union Saint-Gilloise went 58 years between appearances in European competitions, entering
15717-674: 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
15886-621: 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
16055-661: 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
16224-421: The board of directors, and the club suffered another relegation to the Third Division. Bove returned as chairman in 2010 with the backing of new Italian sponsors, but Union's prospects on the pitch continued to suffer, and in 2012–13, finished 17th out of 19 clubs in the Third Division B, inside the relegation zone. However, KVK Tienen were found guilty of making irregular payments and were automatically relegated to
16393-624: 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 )
16562-479: 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
16731-474: The champions, Club Brugge. Union attract supporters primarily from the Brussels region, especially from the south of the Belgian capital. Their ultras are known as the Union Bhoys, and attend in the all-standing Tribune Est . The Union Bhoys have friendships with RFC Liège and Cercle Brugge supporters. Union's supporters promote anti-fascist ideals. Union share a Brussels city derby, also known as
16900-553: 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
17069-472: 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
17238-540: 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
17407-603: 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
17576-474: 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
17745-546: 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
17914-515: The end of the 1970s, back-to-back relegations seeing Union fall from the Second Division to the Fourth in successive years. The club rallied in the mid-80s to earn back-to-back promotions back up to the Second Division, claiming the Fourth Division crown in 1983 and the Third the following season. But no further progress could be made and Union would move between the second and third flights for close on
18083-489: 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,
18252-504: 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
18421-490: The first "European" Cup competitions that took place, prior to officially sanctioned UEFA competitions. Between 1958 and 1965, the club had a brief spell of European success, playing in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and reaching the semi-finals in the 1958–60 edition after a two-legged victory against A.S. Roma . In 1963, however, the club was relegated to the second division, and in 1980 even fell as low as
18590-411: 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
18759-484: The first derby between the two teams in the championship, Union beat Anderlecht 3–1. In January 2022, in their first home game against Anderlecht in the championship since their relegation in 1972, Union completed a league double over Anderlecht, defeating them 1–0. During the Champions Playoffs at the end of the 2021–22 season, they again defeated Anderlecht twice, first with a 3–1 home victory and again with
18928-525: 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
19097-455: The fourth time in the season 2–0 at Lotto Park . Eventually, Union finished four points down on Club in second place, with 46 points compared to Club's 50, historically qualifying Union for the UEFA Champions League . League glory for Union would have seen them become the first newly promoted side to win a top-20 European national league championship at the first attempt since Kaiserslautern 's 1998 Bundesliga success. During their run for
19266-415: 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
19435-711: 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
19604-402: 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
19773-563: 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
19942-520: 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
20111-675: The last season, Union entered in the playoff round of the Europa League . There, they faced FC Lugano and won, qualifying for the Europa League group stage for the second consecutive season. In the group, they were drawn with Liverpool , Toulouse and LASK . They would finish third in the group, but they secured some great results like their 2–1 win over Liverpool. In the UEFA Europa Conference League knockout round playoffs, they were drawn against Eintracht Frankfurt . The first leg finished 2–2, but they won
20280-411: 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
20449-629: 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
20618-437: 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
20787-447: The next four decades. Promotion back to the Second Division in 2004 saw two subsequent seasons of battling against relegation, but the 2006–07 started brightly and promotion back to the First Division was a prospect until a poor climax to their campaign post-Christmas, leading to the sacking of coach Tshupula Kande, replaced by Alex Czerniatynski. In May 2007, long-standing chairman Enrico Bove resigned along with several other members of
20956-451: 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
21125-533: 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
21294-491: The play-offs strongly, beating Anderlecht 3–1 and thus becoming the first club ever to inflict three defeats on the Mauves in the same league season. A 0–0 draw away to Antwerp saw the lead over Club Brugge maintained at three points. The title race swung in the direction of Bruges in back-to-back games between Union and Club, with the champions earning a tight 2–0 win in Brussels to draw level on points, with Club going top under
21463-527: 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
21632-512: The previous season's top four, Union beat Anderlecht, Genk and Royal Antwerp , drawing 0–0 away to Club Brugge. By the end of the regular season, Union were top on 77 points, five ahead of Club Brugge, with Antwerp and Anderlecht also qualifying for the six rounds of play-offs, where the quartet would bring forward half of the regular season points into the play-offs. Hence, Union would resume on 39, Club 36, with Anderlecht and Antwerp both on 32. On 10 April 2022, during their first season back in
21801-411: 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
21970-552: 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
22139-570: 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
22308-410: 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
22477-515: 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
22646-423: 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
22815-477: 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
22984-401: 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
23153-524: 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
23322-468: The season before, lying second heading into the final round of the Belgian Pro League regular season and reaching the Belgian Cup semi-finals, only to lose to Royal Antwerp on penalties. Union reached the final day of the title play-offs in second place on 46 points, with leaders Antwerp also on 46, top by virtue of finishing in first place at the end of the regular season. Third-placers Genk were
23491-404: 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
23660-517: The second leg in Frankfurt 2–1 to win 4–3 on aggregate and qualify for the round of 16 where they lost to Fenerbahce . Following their 2–0 away win over OH Leuven on 2 March 2024, Union mathematically became the regular season champions for the second time in three seasons, as they had an 8-point lead over city rivals Anderlecht with only two regular season matchdays to go. On 9 May 2024, Union won their first Cup title after 110 years, following
23829-455: 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
23998-485: 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
24167-411: 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
24336-487: The third qualifying round, reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League . The club was founded in 1897 and obtained its first of eleven titles as Champion of Belgium in 1904. From 1933 to 1935 the team played 60 consecutive matches undefeated, setting a still unbeaten record in Belgium, winning three league titles in a row across that period led by captain Jules Pappaert . With its first national title barely
24505-545: 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
24674-497: 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
24843-406: 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
25012-410: 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] )
25181-558: The title, coach Felice Mazzu gained a reputation for dancing in front of Union's fans post-match, cited as keeping a light atmosphere within the club and maintaining a close relationship with the Union fans. Union's runners-up spot qualified them for the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, sending them into European football for the first time since 1964–65, and their first UEFA competition after featuring in five editions of
25350-417: The top division since 1973, being edged out 1–0 through a late Eduard Sobol winner. Union went top of the Pro League on 17 October 2021, passing previous leaders Eupen by virtue of a 4–1 win over Seraing , and would remain there until May. Due to the novelty of being crowned unofficial winter champions , Union were awarded a special trophy by the newspaper HLN. In a difficult January run against all of
25519-460: The top division, USG went unbeaten at home, beating Kortrijk , Waasland-Beveren and Cercle Brugge , drawing with Zulte Waregem and Excel Mouscron . Away wins over Kortrijk, Mouscron and Cercle put them in with a big chance of winning the group to qualify for the Play-Offs 2 Final, but losses away to Waasland-Beveren and Zulte Waregem saw them overtaken by Kortrijk right at the end. The Kerels finished on 24 points, Union 20. With Elsner taking up
25688-413: The top flight in 48 years, Union Saint-Gilloise finished the regular season in first place after a draw against last place Beerschot . The match was abandoned after 83 minutes, after Beerschot fans threw flares onto the pitch. Union were later awarded three points due to forfeit. This was the first time that a newly promoted club finished top of the table in the history of the Belgian league. Union started
25857-428: The top flight since 1972. Due to restrictions at the time due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Union fans were not able to celebrate their promotion at the stadium. A sensational return to top-flight football after 48 years away saw a 3–1 opening-day win away to Brussels' traditional giants Anderlecht. Union in their next match a week later hosted reigning champions Club Brugge on 1 August 2021 in their first home game in
26026-494: The top of Division 1B in 2018–19, which that season was divided into South American-style "opening" and "closing" competitions, framed in the "apertura and clausura" style seen in many countries in the Americas. The winner of each competition would qualify for the promotion play-off final, with automatic promotion being the incentive for a club to try and win both competitions. Union were second behind Mechelen by six points in
26195-466: 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
26364-545: 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
26533-508: The two have met even fewer times in the modern era than RWDM and Union have. This is arguably Union's fiercest derby, with many fans considering it to be the most important match of the season. They met for the first time since 1979 in the Belgian Cup in 2018, with Union stunning Anderlecht 3–0 at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium . In 2021, Union were promoted to the First Division for the first time in 49 years. In
26702-425: 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,
26871-484: 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
27040-512: 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
27209-604: Was confirmed as the majority shareholder. Current Union chairman Alex Muzio was a co-investor with Tony Bloom in 2018. On 7 July 2023 Alex Muzio was confirmed as having become the majority owner of Union. Promoted from the third tier in 2015, Union quickly established themselves as a top-six side in Division 1B, without becoming a top-3 side. A change of coach in May 2018 saw Marc Grosjean replaced after three years of finishing 6th, 4th and 6th by Luka Elsner , with Union contesting at
27378-463: 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
27547-758: 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
27716-429: 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
27885-403: 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
28054-500: 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
28223-520: 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
28392-527: 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
28561-461: 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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