The 1997–98 season of the Jupiler League was held between 8 August 1997 and 10 May 1998. Club Brugge became champions.
Promoted teams
These teams were promoted from the second division at the start of the season: Beveren (second division champions) Westerlo (playoff winner)
Relegated teams These teams were relegated to the second division at the end of the season: RWDM Antwerp
Brugge's title success Club Brugge ended in first place 18 points ahead of Racing Genk.
Battle for Europe Sporting Anderlecht finally qualified for the UEFA Cup by ending in 4th place as Genk (2nd) and Brugge (1st) played the Cup final. The third team to qualify for the UEFA Cup was Germinal Ekeren (3rd).
The relegation dog fight RWDM was relegated following a 1-1 draw at Charleroi as the newcomer Beveren managed to draw against Germinal Ekeren on the 33rd matchday. With 4 points more than RWDM the club from Waasland then lost to Anderlecht on the last matchday whereas RWDM easily beat Lokeren by 5-1.
Final league table
Results
Top goal scorers ScorerGoalsTeam Branko Strupar22Racing Genk Tomasz Radzinski19Germinal Ekeren Peter Lässen15Eendracht Aalst Gunther Hofmans15Germinal Ekeren Souleymane Oularé14Racing Genk
Attendances
No. Club Average attendance Change Highest 1 Anderlecht 21,353 10,3% 28,161 2 Club Brugge 12,706 -3,4% 16,000 3 Standard de Liège 12,088 -2,1% 20,000 4 Genk 10,629 20,1% 17,000 5 Lierse 8,118 -5,8% 14,000 6 Mouscron 7,476 -4,1% 9,000 7 STVV 7,382 -11,0% 13,500 8 Gent 7,294 -0,9% 16,000 9 Eendracht Aalst 6,982 4,5% 9,000 10 Lommel 6,529 -5,1% 12,500 11 Westerlo 6,312 109,2% 10,500 12 Charleroi 6,088 4,3% 14,000 13 Beveren 5,512 71,9% 9,000 14 Lokeren 5,265 -9,6% 13,000 15 Harelbeke 5,176 -3,3% 9,000 16 Germinal Beerschot 4,912 16,8% 8,000 17 Molenbeek 4,647 -15,1% 8,000 18 Antwerp 3,941 -38,5% 7,000Source:
See also 1997–98 in Belgian football
References
Sport.be website – Archive