First Division. One outsider, two teams fighting for the title.
KRC Genk – very weak this season – last with 15 points and relegated.
RWD Molenbbek – lost the battle for survival and ended relegated: 17th with 25 points. Very quickly Brussels went down from 3 teams in the top league to one in the next season.
K. Beerschot VAC – survived by a point: 16th with 26 points.
Cercle Brugge KSV – 15th with 27 points.
KSC Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen – 14th with 28 points. Nothing special, but two Nigerians will become very well known in the 1990s – Siasia and Rufai.
KRC Mechelen – 13th with 28 points.
KSK Beveren – 12th with 28 points. Back to their modest tradition, the good years were over.
R Charleroi SC – 11th with 29 points.
Lierse SK – 10th with 29 points.
KSV Waregem – 9th with 30 points.
KV Kortrijk – 8th with 35 points.
K Sint-Truidense VV – 7th with 35 points.
Standard Liege – 6th with 36 points.
Royal Antwerp FC – 5th with 42 points.
Club Brugge – 4th with 43 points.
RFC Liege – 3rd with 46 points. Wonderful season for usually modest club. They had a number of strong players – 3 second-rate Yugoslavs (Stojic, Varga and Malbasa), two up and coming Belgians – Vejt and Boffin, and another one of little talent, but who will change football for ever and not for good (depending on standpoint) in the 1990s – one Jean-Marc Bosman. Hats down to these boys, though – they were inferior to the selections and Club Brugge and Standard, but finished well ahead of the famous clubs.
Anderlecht – 2nd with 53 points. Fought for the title as usual, scored most goals in the league (83), had strong squad – perhaps the best in the country on paper – but finished 4 points behind the winners.
KV Mechelen won the Belgian title just one year after winning the Cup Winners Cup. 25 wins, 7 ties, 2 losses and 64-20 goal-difference did it – they finished with 57 points: 4 points ahead of mighty Anderlecht. The team excited many a viewer in the previous year and it was so sweet to see them winning again. Since for many this club was somewhat ‘new arrival’, the title most likely was their first – in fact, it their 4th, but 40 years passed since they won their 3rd title – no wonder their success was considered absolutely new. Well, the long wait was over at last.
The squad was pretty much the same as the one winning the Cup Winners Cup, but eventually changes occurred .
The ambitious program started in the mid-80s worked better than expected – KV Mechelen had the best period in its history and the only problem was the future: sudden fame is almost always deadly for a small club. So far nobody was looking and they were able to recruit good players, but now… the opposite was going to happen, including their coach Aad de Mos. But the moment was great and the team deserved its success.