That year was perfect as the playoffs for the title was between 4 teams but now it's terrible as it's between 6 teams and almost rewards mediocrity and is unfair when it comes to European qualification.
I was there . The scènes was unreal .. i think it was min 88 or something like that and everyone was on the sideline ready to flood the pitch untill Toby scored the last winner and the dissapointment was in the air lol
@@vcmusti I was buzzing for Toby Alderweireld to bring it home for his hometown club and end their super long league title drought. I hope Union SG wins it sometime soon as they deserve it.
Our League might be insane, but it really spices up te season. Especially as a fan of a club that will likely never make it to the play-offs again, Kortrijk.
At the end where Kasper is speaking about bravery, it had me think back to when I was a goalkeeper for my university team in Canada. Myself and the other keeper always said to each other everyday at training and before/during games “Be comfortable being uncomfortable.” That mindset change allowed us to play very high up the field, being very exposed, to support and basically act as a CB
What team did you play for? Was it in USports, or more of a local league thing? I know way too little about the Canadian collegiate system, even though it absolutely fascinates me!
I’m from Belgium and a Club Brugge fan. The Play offs are a fun system, but it has his pros and cons. You have only top matches, but the points deduction is crazy and a bit unfair… last year we took advantage of it, but we have also lost the title race a few times because of it… A lot of belgian football fans (and teams) are against it. The Pro League thinks that the Belgian teams will perform better in Europe because of all the top games in this system. To be fair tho, we are doing great the last couple of years… but I think that’s not because of the play offs. The Pro League actually only care about the money these games bring! So there will probably no change for the next couple of years…
I'm also a club brugge fan! It's hard to identify if the team who's on top after the regular season is well deserved or not.... Yeah sure, you get a bit frustrated if you're 20-25 pts ahead but we also have to consider big teams, especially club brugge, don't go all in during the regular season, since points are halfed, we don't want our momentum too soon, so if we lose a couple games, it's not dramatic, the players are not on their peak yet.if we started playoffs with the same amount of points, I'm pretty sure teams would be more serious through the season
I actually looked it up recently, and Club has only lost 1 title (14-15) to the system and won 2 (21- 22 and 23-24) because of it. Most top teams don't gain or lose spots on average. Club for example has gained spots in 3 seasons and also lost spots in 3 seasons. So i would say it's unfair to say that the playoffs have been a massive advantage for us.
Belgian here. Our league system is quite controversial but I really like it. It makes for an exciting competition until the end of the season as it avoids a team winning the league weeks in advance + the top teams play each other more often.
People need to understand that money is the most important motivation in these kind of decisions. By halving the points they hope to make the league more suspenseful, which will boost everything around it, ticket sale, tv ratings, merchandising and so on.
not such a weird thing - makes the playoff much more exciting - every match is a final. I am not sure why people are so puzzled by this. Its the same system in Romania and it makes for better viewing
Because this system prevents the smaller teams from creating an exploit by leading a beautiful classic phase. What happened to Union, for example, is really sad. They deserved the title, but 3 bad games deprived them of it.
The "better viewing" of the corrupted Romanian league where some clubs have duplicated in existence as seen with Steaua Bucharest. 🤦♂️ The regular season minus the playoffs is the best and fairest way to determine the champions.
@@diegokuhh Compared to play off systems from other sports, keeping half your points is actually a huge advantage. In basketball and volleyball for example, you get little to no advantage from the regular season. 'halving the points' just sounds negative. They could have used the same logic, but applying it differently. Let's say the 1st team had a 20 point lead on the 6th team after the regular season. Then in the play offs the 6th team starts with 0 points, and the first team starts with 10 points.
I think having a play-off is nice, but a 40 match calendar is unneccessary as many European leagues have 38 as maximum. Either making championship play-off with 4 teams (30+6 matches) or with 6 teams with one leg (30+5) can be better for Belgian teams. Also, halving points may increase competition but it is unfair for upper teams.
The 30+6 format was good as the top 4 generally would be close to each other and how Royal Antwerp won the league but now it's too much with 6 teams in the playoffs which almost rewards mediocrity and ruins qualification for Europe.
@@RolandPeteur 6 teams is too much. It should be top 4 with the losers qualifying for the remaining Champions League and Europa League spot. Team 5-8 should battle for the Conference League.
Scotland has the same split system, which is designed to make the run in more competitive, but often one team runs away in the normal phase and has it in the bag before the split. On the times it has gone to the wire, it’s mega exciting (or excruciatingly painful). It’s a good format, but halving the points is mad. Penalises a team that done well and gives a second chance to a probably bigger club with players more likely to handle the pressure. Imagine England halving the points the year Lester won’t and suddenly Man City are back in the title run in. Scotlands split means you don’t have a vastly easier run in than your rival because you could have the bottom four in the last four games and they have top five. Means the relegation teams play each other and that is often a lot closer than the top of the table due to the top two having more money as is what footballs about these days.
@@jekanyika I agree, but I'd like to keep things the way they are with Celtic continuing to win 😂 I may be slightly biased though. Seriously though, making it more competitive would absolutely benefit the league, and increase the quality of players and bring in a bigger audience. It is at times boring being a Celtic fan knowing you'll probably only have 4 relatively close league games per season against rangers, it's hard to get excited playing Ross County.
@@GM-tw4elI think you’re lying about being a Celtic fan. Plenty more close games than just rangers, which often aren’t close. The irony of using Ross county when Celtic had to come from behind VERY late in the game to beat them in Dingwall whilst wiping the floor with rangers in the first derby. Also, Scottie football is the best attended per capita in Europe.
Teams in 7th end up with more points because they are playing the bottom six teams and ultimately have easier matches. The team in 5th could be going to Celtic park and Ibrox. The table looks mad sometimes, but the system is fairer than going I tot he last game away to the team in third whilst the team in second could be home to the already relegated team and have a gimme at the title. What would make it a better system would be two rounds of fixtures (home and away) but that means less home games against Celtic and rangers which is less gate receipts for teams in the bottom half.
@@Derek-qu8qi aye I'm lying when I say I get more excited when we play rangers than I do playing Ross County. Nae bother mate. You go into every game believing you'll win with this current celtic team, but rangers are the only team that you can have pre-match nerves about. Having the highest attendance per capita means heehaw as well, TV deals and sponsorship pay for players not match tickets, and as it stands Celtic and Rangers are the only 2 teams who bring in any kind of meaningful viewing numbers outside of Scotland.
I'm always a little bewildered when I see people complain about the points deduction when it's literally called "play-offs". Virtually every other play-off system removes the points tally entirely. Just makes me wonder how little other sports the average European football fan watches. Not gonna lie though, the current Belgian system requires a lot of nitty gritty rulebook work and looks confusing on paper, but it pans out fine the first time you follow along. Good talk, always nice to hear different POVs, especially the goalkeeper's.
Did he even care last year? He is telling Anderlecht was trailing by 20 points when the play-offs started, while we were only 6 points behind (reduced to 3)
I think most of us dont mind the play offs but just really hate the deduction of points. Makes no sense imo to punish the team leading the table to "make it more fair"
Our play off system is ridicolous. Union always would have been the champ. They wanna make it exciting by cutting down the points, but that's just unfair. Just go back to the old system, after 38 games the team with the highest amount of points is the champion. Nice and simple.
The most insane is Moldova. To stop Sheriff winning every year they play each other twice, split the league into top half and bottom half and then deduct all the points. Then play a 6 team league 😂
Halving the league is bad its like Scotland it just suits the top teams. If you are a bottom half club who manages to get clear then have to play the best teams again its not fair.
Half of the country doesn't like the format at all. You can work your ass off all season and get a 24 point lead, which in any country would be a massive gap to get to the title.... and all of a sudden, woopsie daisy it gets to 12. So the teams that done worse get a free pass to get in form for the last games.
Used to be, for sure. But now Bruges is way ahead structurally and financially at this time. (And Genk playing greater football for the last 10 years or so).
Well, at least the results of the regular season do count in the Belgian play offs ! And still you play a series of games against top opponents to decide the season.. In the MLS ( and basically other US sports ) the points of the regular season (over 6-7 months) don't play a role anymore, and you can get knocked out in the first play off round ! ! That is crazy.actually .. A couple of injuries and your season become worthless
Keeping tension till the end of the season isn't the only argument in favor of the Belgian league format. The big clubs surely saw the extra ticket income as a strong motivation as well. But what gets mostly overlooked, is the effect on Belgian clubs' performance in Europe. The last 3 seasons they consistenly scored a lot of points for the UEFA coefficient, only the big 5 do better. More games against tough opposition generates more experienced squads, often an issue in smaller leagues dominated by a handful of teams. And being consistent all season isn't enough, you need to stand up in those big playoff games to qualify for Europe. Hard to prove the causal effect, but I don't think it's a coincidence.
@@panda6256 Toch wel, zelfs zonder het nieuw stadion dat er idd dringend moet komen. Wat Club trouwens al meer dan 10 jaar wil bouwen.. als het aan hen lag stond het er al een decennium.
I never understood the belgian league but i watched the final game live on tv when antwerp became champions and it was mental.
Yeah 3 different teams were virtual champions that day.
That year was perfect as the playoffs for the title was between 4 teams but now it's terrible as it's between 6 teams and almost rewards mediocrity and is unfair when it comes to European qualification.
It’s much more interesting for the neutral fans, attracts much more viewers which means more money. Only reason
I was there . The scènes was unreal .. i think it was min 88 or something like that and everyone was on the sideline ready to flood the pitch untill Toby scored the last winner and the dissapointment was in the air lol
@@vcmusti I was buzzing for Toby Alderweireld to bring it home for his hometown club and end their super long league title drought. I hope Union SG wins it sometime soon as they deserve it.
Our League might be insane, but it really spices up te season. Especially as a fan of a club that will likely never make it to the play-offs again, Kortrijk.
Best club in the country ❤
Surely the last few games before playoffs are pretty stale for the mostpart
Fellow Vincent Tan sufferer 🤝
@uk145 they really aren't
Yes it´s a very watchable intense league
At the end where Kasper is speaking about bravery, it had me think back to when I was a goalkeeper for my university team in Canada. Myself and the other keeper always said to each other everyday at training and before/during games “Be comfortable being uncomfortable.” That mindset change allowed us to play very high up the field, being very exposed, to support and basically act as a CB
What team did you play for? Was it in USports, or more of a local league thing?
I know way too little about the Canadian collegiate system, even though it absolutely fascinates me!
I’m from Belgium and a Club Brugge fan. The Play offs are a fun system, but it has his pros and cons. You have only top matches, but the points deduction is crazy and a bit unfair… last year we took advantage of it, but we have also lost the title race a few times because of it… A lot of belgian football fans (and teams) are against it. The Pro League thinks that the Belgian teams will perform better in Europe because of all the top games in this system. To be fair tho, we are doing great the last couple of years… but I think that’s not because of the play offs. The Pro League actually only care about the money these games bring! So there will probably no change for the next couple of years…
I'm also a club brugge fan! It's hard to identify if the team who's on top after the regular season is well deserved or not.... Yeah sure, you get a bit frustrated if you're 20-25 pts ahead but we also have to consider big teams, especially club brugge, don't go all in during the regular season, since points are halfed, we don't want our momentum too soon, so if we lose a couple games, it's not dramatic, the players are not on their peak yet.if we started playoffs with the same amount of points, I'm pretty sure teams would be more serious through the season
No it's not
It's a great system... for people who don't really care about football. If you do care and if you want your team to win, it's just way too stressful.
@@grimruin i think it's a good system, not great but good, if you stop the points deduction
I actually looked it up recently, and Club has only lost 1 title (14-15) to the system and won 2 (21- 22 and 23-24) because of it. Most top teams don't gain or lose spots on average. Club for example has gained spots in 3 seasons and also lost spots in 3 seasons. So i would say it's unfair to say that the playoffs have been a massive advantage for us.
Best format ever!
It's the best format you will find. Every year, the end of the season is excited.
Only the end of the season though😂
My mate playing Football Manager just found all this out hahah
As a fan that Belgien League system is awesome i always look forward to the playoffs.
Belgian here. Our league system is quite controversial but I really like it. It makes for an exciting competition until the end of the season as it avoids a team winning the league weeks in advance + the top teams play each other more often.
It adds suspense for sure
Ngl the Belgian League is kinda mental
Dude it´s Electric them playoffs
Got to give the 1000th like, as a belgian.... i ll take it as a good sign for the new year. Happy with the little things 😂
People need to understand that money is the most important motivation in these kind of decisions. By halving the points they hope to make the league more suspenseful, which will boost everything around it, ticket sale, tv ratings, merchandising and so on.
Interesting mix of American and world style of deciding a champion.
not such a weird thing - makes the playoff much more exciting - every match is a final. I am not sure why people are so puzzled by this. Its the same system in Romania and it makes for better viewing
Because this system prevents the smaller teams from creating an exploit by leading a beautiful classic phase. What happened to Union, for example, is really sad. They deserved the title, but 3 bad games deprived them of it.
The "better viewing" of the corrupted Romanian league where some clubs have duplicated in existence as seen with Steaua Bucharest. 🤦♂️ The regular season minus the playoffs is the best and fairest way to determine the champions.
The fact that points get halved is stupid it makes the matches before the play offs worth incredibly little
@@diegokuhh yeah, but without those incredibly little points you wouldnt get to the playoffs in the first place.
@@diegokuhh Compared to play off systems from other sports, keeping half your points is actually a huge advantage. In basketball and volleyball for example, you get little to no advantage from the regular season. 'halving the points' just sounds negative. They could have used the same logic, but applying it differently. Let's say the 1st team had a 20 point lead on the 6th team after the regular season. Then in the play offs the 6th team starts with 0 points, and the first team starts with 10 points.
Kasper sounds more English than the majority of the UK.
I’m sure that’s because he is English
He grew up in Manchester for a large part of his life, first when his Dad was at United then returned when he joined City's academy
@ so he’s English
@@matthewdaisley9996 no he's Danish, he was born in Denmark and so are both of his parents
The lad that went to an English private school sounds English? Colour me shocked!
I think having a play-off is nice, but a 40 match calendar is unneccessary as many European leagues have 38 as maximum. Either making championship play-off with 4 teams (30+6 matches) or with 6 teams with one leg (30+5) can be better for Belgian teams. Also, halving points may increase competition but it is unfair for upper teams.
The 30+6 format was good as the top 4 generally would be close to each other and how Royal Antwerp won the league but now it's too much with 6 teams in the playoffs which almost rewards mediocrity and ruins qualification for Europe.
No. It´s a topleague with 6 playoff team is perfect
@@RolandPeteur 6 teams is too much. It should be top 4 with the losers qualifying for the remaining Champions League and Europa League spot. Team 5-8 should battle for the Conference League.
Scotland has the same split system, which is designed to make the run in more competitive, but often one team runs away in the normal phase and has it in the bag before the split. On the times it has gone to the wire, it’s mega exciting (or excruciatingly painful).
It’s a good format, but halving the points is mad. Penalises a team that done well and gives a second chance to a probably bigger club with players more likely to handle the pressure. Imagine England halving the points the year Lester won’t and suddenly Man City are back in the title run in.
Scotlands split means you don’t have a vastly easier run in than your rival because you could have the bottom four in the last four games and they have top five.
Means the relegation teams play each other and that is often a lot closer than the top of the table due to the top two having more money as is what footballs about these days.
He's now playing in Scotland who do the same split thing. There's been cases of a team finishing 7th on more points than the team in 5th.
They don't half the points though. They probably should as it would be nice to see a different winner once in a while.
@@jekanyika I agree, but I'd like to keep things the way they are with Celtic continuing to win 😂 I may be slightly biased though. Seriously though, making it more competitive would absolutely benefit the league, and increase the quality of players and bring in a bigger audience. It is at times boring being a Celtic fan knowing you'll probably only have 4 relatively close league games per season against rangers, it's hard to get excited playing Ross County.
@@GM-tw4elI think you’re lying about being a Celtic fan. Plenty more close games than just rangers, which often aren’t close. The irony of using Ross county when Celtic had to come from behind VERY late in the game to beat them in Dingwall whilst wiping the floor with rangers in the first derby.
Also, Scottie football is the best attended per capita in Europe.
Teams in 7th end up with more points because they are playing the bottom six teams and ultimately have easier matches. The team in 5th could be going to Celtic park and Ibrox. The table looks mad sometimes, but the system is fairer than going I tot he last game away to the team in third whilst the team in second could be home to the already relegated team and have a gimme at the title.
What would make it a better system would be two rounds of fixtures (home and away) but that means less home games against Celtic and rangers which is less gate receipts for teams in the bottom half.
@@Derek-qu8qi aye I'm lying when I say I get more excited when we play rangers than I do playing Ross County. Nae bother mate. You go into every game believing you'll win with this current celtic team, but rangers are the only team that you can have pre-match nerves about. Having the highest attendance per capita means heehaw as well, TV deals and sponsorship pay for players not match tickets, and as it stands Celtic and Rangers are the only 2 teams who bring in any kind of meaningful viewing numbers outside of Scotland.
As a KV Kortrijk fan, I like not having play-offs
I'm always a little bewildered when I see people complain about the points deduction when it's literally called "play-offs". Virtually every other play-off system removes the points tally entirely. Just makes me wonder how little other sports the average European football fan watches.
Not gonna lie though, the current Belgian system requires a lot of nitty gritty rulebook work and looks confusing on paper, but it pans out fine the first time you follow along.
Good talk, always nice to hear different POVs, especially the goalkeeper's.
All smaller divisions should be like this, change my mind
We as Belgians know how different the champions would be every year if they wouldn’t play with play-offs
Did he even care last year? He is telling Anderlecht was trailing by 20 points when the play-offs started, while we were only 6 points behind (reduced to 3)
We were 9 points behind, Club Brugge 19 points
Zuurpruim
@@expectededgede gemiddelde Anderlecht supporter is gewoon altijd depressief en boos 😂
I think most of us dont mind the play offs but just really hate the deduction of points. Makes no sense imo to punish the team leading the table to "make it more fair"
It´s about suspense which generates money
The standard format doesn't suit all leagues/countries. Surely it's better that different countries have their own way of doing things?
Beerschot fan here, it makes the league really nice but it is unfair. In the top play offs points get halved, in the relegation play offs not…
Gienen stress maat, morgen 3 punten en we doen terug mee
Our play off system is ridicolous. Union always would have been the champ. They wanna make it exciting by cutting down the points, but that's just unfair. Just go back to the old system, after 38 games the team with the highest amount of points is the champion. Nice and simple.
The most insane is Moldova. To stop Sheriff winning every year they play each other twice, split the league into top half and bottom half and then deduct all the points.
Then play a 6 team league 😂
Halving the league is bad its like Scotland it just suits the top teams. If you are a bottom half club who manages to get clear then have to play the best teams again its not fair.
I like Kasper more than Peter, personality wise
Half of the country doesn't like the format at all. You can work your ass off all season and get a 24 point lead, which in any country would be a massive gap to get to the title.... and all of a sudden, woopsie daisy it gets to 12. So the teams that done worse get a free pass to get in form for the last games.
More like 10% whiners like yourself. The loud vocal minority, as usual.
Insane? It´s intense competitive and exciting from august to may. Every smaller league should do this.
remember, Club Brugge is the biggest Belgian club
It's a good system. Last matches are all top games. If you can't win these, you don't deserve to be the champion.
We had that 25 years ago in Croatia,it's nonsense
Bullshit
WAS* the biggest club of Belgium.
1:25 'biggest club in Belgium' 😂😂😂
En?
Just 100% the truth historically.
Still is and always will be
Used to be, for sure. But now Bruges is way ahead structurally and financially at this time. (And Genk playing greater football for the last 10 years or so).
Anderlecht was en zal voor een lange tijd de beste club in Belgie zijn. Is eenmaal een feit
Well, at least the results of the regular season do count in the Belgian play offs ! And still you play a series of games against top opponents to decide the season..
In the MLS ( and basically other US sports ) the points of the regular season (over 6-7 months) don't play a role anymore, and you can get knocked out in the first play off round ! ! That is crazy.actually .. A couple of injuries and your season become worthless
Keeping tension till the end of the season isn't the only argument in favor of the Belgian league format. The big clubs surely saw the extra ticket income as a strong motivation as well. But what gets mostly overlooked, is the effect on Belgian clubs' performance in Europe. The last 3 seasons they consistenly scored a lot of points for the UEFA coefficient, only the big 5 do better. More games against tough opposition generates more experienced squads, often an issue in smaller leagues dominated by a handful of teams. And being consistent all season isn't enough, you need to stand up in those big playoff games to qualify for Europe. Hard to prove the causal effect, but I don't think it's a coincidence.
It’s not a given if you’re Onana
Funny thing is that Kasper lost the league due to this points reduction 😂
As a Belgian, this why I stopped watching football. It's not a real league
Bruges fan, it's an abhorrent system. Even though we won it last year because of it.
First
No one cares
i'm belgian and our system is shit. All i gotta say
Belgian playoffs is a STUPID thing
Club Brugge is the biggest club in Belgium 🔵⚫️
biggest in being gay (bar Union)
Who has ***?
Who
😂
😂😂
Kasper is wrong there.. Anderlecht is not the biggest club in Belgium, the biggest and best is Club Brugge ;)
Me zo'n stadion kunde uzelf niet de grootste club noemen weleenswaar
Me zo'n stadion kunde uzelf niet de grootste club noemen weleenswaar
@@panda6256 Toch wel, zelfs zonder het nieuw stadion dat er idd dringend moet komen. Wat Club trouwens al meer dan 10 jaar wil bouwen.. als het aan hen lag stond het er al een decennium.
Nah
@bhvillaman4401 Jah
Anderlecht a big club? hahaha sorry April 1st is already past this year