The 2003–04 season of the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

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 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: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropo ...

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 Be ...

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 Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the mo ...

, 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, cla ...

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 R.A.E.C. Mons may refer to one of two Belgian football clubs A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, ...

and Charleroi, which finally saved themselves,

and K. Beringen-Heusden-Zolder 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