The 2003–04 season of the Belgian First Division was held between 8 August 2003 and 15 May 2004. Sporting Anderlecht became champions on 24 April 2004.

Promoted teams

These teams were promoted from the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

at the start of the season: * Cercle Brugge K.S.V. (second division champions) * K. Heusden-Zolder (playoff winner)

Relegated teams

These teams were relegated to the second division at the end of the season: * K. Heusden-Zolder *

R. Antwerp F.C. Royal Antwerp Football Club, often referred to as Royal Antwerp or simply Antwerp, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Antwerp. Founded around 1880 as ''Antwerp Cricket Club'' by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years before ...

Anderlecht's title success

The battle for the title was not great as Anderlecht had a big lead over their opponents (mainly

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

). However, a bad finish from Anderlecht kept the suspense until the 31st matchday when Club Brugge drew with

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon language, Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgium, Belgian Hainaut Province, province of Hainaut, along the border ...

while the team from Brussels also drew (1-1) at Herman Vanderpoortenstadion, the homeground of

Lierse Koninklijke Lierse Sportkring (), often simply known as Lierse, was a Belgian professional football club from the city of Lier in the Antwerp province. Lierse have won four championship titles and two Belgian Cups. Lierse was one of the six ...

Battle for Europe

The next week, Club Brugge was sure to enter the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

Preliminary Round with a 1-0 win against Standard Liège, then lying third. In spite of this defeat, Standard managed to qualify for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

as they were 6 points ahead of Mouscron after the 32nd matchday. The suspense was killed after a 1-1 draw against

Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.

the next Saturday.

The relegation dog fight

The end of the league was thus centered on the battle against relegation. Four teams were concerned : R.A.E.C. Mons and Charleroi, which finally saved themselves,

and

K. Beringen-Heusden-Zolder K. Beringen-Heusden-Zolder was a Belgian football club, from the municipalities of Heusden-Zolder and Beringen in Limburg. Its stadium has been located in the municipality of Beringen-Mijn from 2004 to 2006 (after its relegation from the Belgia ...

finishing respectively 6 and 5 points adrift.

Final league table

Results

Top goal scorers

References

Sport.be website
- Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:2003-04 Belgian First Division Belgian First Division A seasons Belgian 1