June • June 12, 2006 – Fixtures for the
2006-07 Belgian First Division released.
July • July 13, 2006 –
Roeselare is the first Belgian team to compete in Europe this season as they take part in the first qualifying round of the
UEFA Cup. They win their very first European match ever, 2–1, against Macedonian side
Vardar away in
Skopje. • July 16, 2006 – In the
Intertoto Cup,
Gent loses the first leg of their tie with
Grasshoppers Zürich 2–1 in
Zürich. • July 22, 2006 – The
Belgian Supercup, played at the
Constant Vanden Stock Stadium between
Anderlecht and
Zulte-Waregem, is abandoned at half-time at a score of 0–0 due to heavy rainfall. • July 22, 2006 – Gent manages a 1–1 draw at home to Grasshoppers, and so does not progress to in UEFA Cup, losing 2–3 on
aggregate. • July 24, 2006 – The Profliga announced that the Supercup match between Anderlecht and Zulte-Waregem will be replayed on 1 September. However, both teams confirmed that the match will be replayed, but that they have not agreed on the date yet. • July 27, 2006 – Roeselare qualifies for the second round of the UEFA Cup after defeating Vardar for the second time, this time by a comfortable 5–1 margin, winning 7–2 on aggregate. • July 28, 2006 –
Standard Liège escapes from big names as
Valencia,
Liverpool and
Ajax in the
UEFA Champions League draw as they get drawn together with the winner of the match between
ND Gorica and
Steaua București in the third qualification round. Steaua looks to become the opponent as they already have won the first leg of the match over Gorica. • July 28, 2006 –
Club Brugge and Roeselare receive their opponents in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup:
FK Sūduva and
Ethnikos Achna, respectively. • July 28, 2006 – Club Brugge plays Gent in the first match of the domestic season, winning 5–0. • July 29, 2006 – Official start of the first division with five more matches.
August • August 2, 2006 – It is now sure that
Steaua București will be the opponent of
Standard Liège in the third qualification round of the
Champions League as they also beat
ND Gorica in the return leg. • August 9, 2006 –
Steaua București, the opponent of
Standard Liège in the third qualification round of the
Champions League, has the best chances of progressing to the group stage as the first leg ends 2–2 at
Sclessin in
Liège. • August 10, 2006 – Both
FK Sūduva and
Ethnikos Achna FC prove not strong enough for
Club Brugge and
K.S.V. Roeselare respectively as both
Belgian teams win their first match.
K.S.V. Roeselare won 2–1 at home and still has some work to do in the return leg in
Cyprus while
Club Brugge looks sure of progressing to the
UEFA Cup proper as they won 0–2 away from home in
Sūduva stadium,
Marijampolė. • August 16, 2006 – The match between
Belgium and
Kazakhstan (141st on the
FIFA World Rankings) ends in a scoreless 0–0 draw and just like the previous qualifying campaigns the "Red Devils" don't get off to a good start. • August 23, 2006 –
Standard Liège start good in the second leg of the third qualification round of the
Champions League as they score after three minutes already away to
Steaua București and almost manage to make it 0-2 a few minutes later. However, in the end they lose 2-1 after two goals from
Valentin Badea. As a result, Standard Liège will play in the
UEFA Cup. Elsewhere,
R.S.C. Anderlecht loses to
Real Madrid 2–1 in the
Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu. In Belgium, the
Second Division 2006-07 season gets underway, as the first matchday is played. • August 24, 2006 – In the heat of
Cyprus,
K.S.V. Roeselare gets stomped 5-0 by
Ethnikos Achna FC and so loses its 2–1 lead from the first leg, they are eliminated from European football for this season. Extreme amounts have been registered at the betting agencies always predicting a large win for the
Cypriots, as a result
UEFA is investigating this match and others of
Ethnikos Achna FC for corruption/bribery.
Club Brugge makes a few mistakes as
Lithuanian team
FK Sūduva manage to come back to 2-2 after having led 2–0, however they then pump up the pace and finally it ends 5–2.
Club Brugge goes on into the
Uefa Cup first round. Meanwhile,
R.S.C. Anderlecht gets drawn into group H of the
UEFA Champions League together with
AC Milan,
Lille OSC and
AEK Athens. Their first match is scheduled on September 13 at home to
Lille OSC. • August 25, 2006 – The draw for the
Uefa Cup first round is concluded,
Club Brugge gets paired with
Slovak champions
MFK Ružomberok,
Standard Liège has to play against
Celta de Vigo from
Spain and
Zulte-Waregem faces a long trip to
Moscow to meet up with
FC Lokomotiv Moscow.
Club Brugge and
Zulte-Waregem get to play their first match away from home,
Standard Liège starts with hosting the first leg. • August 30, 2006 –
Johan Boskamp gets fired as manager of
Standard Liège after only scoring 2 out of 12 in the league and failure to qualify for the
UEFA Champions League. The technical director at
Standard Liège,
Michel Preud'homme, takes over his job.
September • September 6, 2006 – After the bad start to the
UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying campaign,
Belgium now beats
Armenia in
Yerevan by a narrow 1-0 margin.
Daniel Van Buyten scores with a well placed header a few minutes before halftime. Belgium played a moderate match with low quality of play, however the abominable state of the field was also a reason for that. • September 9, 2006 – In the first division, on matchday 5, leaders
R.S.C. Anderlecht lose their perfect record as a late goal by
R.E. Mouscron's
Adnan Ćustović ends the game in a 1–1 draw. Meanwhile,
Standard Liège win their first match of the season, 1–3 away to
Lierse S.K. • September 11, 2006 – It is announced that the
Belgian Supercup between league champions
R.S.C. Anderlecht and cup winners
S.V. Zulte-Waregem, which was originally abandoned at half time due to excessive rain on July 22, will be replayed on 20 December. • September 13, 2006 –
R.S.C. Anderlecht has not won their opening match for several years in the
UEFA Champions League and also this year they don't manage to win. Against
Lille OSC, the match ends in a 1–1 draw as both teams had several chances, Anderlecht mainly in the first half and Lille mainly in the second half. • September 14, 2006 –
FC Lokomotiv Moscow is very patient as they wait for good chances to appear against
S.V. Zulte-Waregem in the
Uefa Cup first round match and their tactics seem to pay off as after 90 minutes
Loskov and
Ivanović have set the 2–0 on the board. However, in the 94th minute,
Jonas Vandermarliere scores the all-important away goal and thereby causes the return match to be very exciting. Meanwhile,
Standard Liège is overrun for 90 minutes at home as they struggle to create any chances against
Celta de Vigo, in the end they're lucky to just lose 0-1 and as they leave the field, they are booed by the home crowd. In
Slovakia,
Club Brugge struggles in the opening few minutes against
MFK Ružomberok, but then they take over and after a free-kick goal by
Boško Balaban they control the match to prevent the Slovak team from scoring, in which they succeed to make for a 1–0 victory away from home. • September 26, 2006 – Again a 1–1 draw for
R.S.C. Anderlecht in the
UEFA Champions League, this time against
AEK Athens. Anderlecht took the lead in the first half through
Nicolás Frutos but the equaliser followed just minutes later from
Júlio César. • September 28, 2006 – Return matches of the first round of the
UEFA Cup 2006-07:
Standard Liège plays a decent match, but when
Karel Geraerts misses a penalty kick, the morale is gone and eventually
Celta de Vigo wins the return match 3–0. Against
MFK Ružomberok,
Club Brugge plays very poorly but eventually they go through after a last minute equaliser by
Boško Balaban. The stunt of the day comes from
S.V. Zulte-Waregem as they beat
FC Lokomotiv Moscow 2–0 at home to go through into the group stage. • September 30, 2006 – In the first division, joint leaders
R.S.C. Anderlecht and
K.R.C. Genk play against each other on the 8th matchday. Anderlecht, at that time recognised by many as the most probable champions for the current season solely on strength of the squad, loses out 1–4 on their home ground, where they had not been beaten since February 2005. Genk are the new leaders.
October • October 3, 2006 – The draw for the
Uefa Cup 2006-07 Group Stage is concluded, with
Club Brugge ending up in group B together with
Bayer Leverkusen,
Beşiktaş,
Dinamo Bucharest and
Tottenham Hotspur while
S.V. Zulte-Waregem gets paired with
Ajax,
Sparta Prague,
Espanyol and
Austria Vienna in group F. • October 6, 2006 – The
KBVB/URBSFA met with representatives of the city of Brussels and together they agreed to renew the contract concerning the
King Baudouin Stadium and extend it to June 30, 2008. As of November 15, 2006 against
Poland national football team on, the
Belgium national team will play in the King Baudouin Stadium again. • October 7, 2006 – In the
2008 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying tournament,
Belgium loses 1–0 to
Serbia in
Belgrade. In the first half, the Belgians never got into trouble but did not create many chances themselves, while in the second half it was Serbia having control. Serbia scored with more than half an hour to go through
Nikola Žigić and Belgium tried to respond, but never managed to score. • October 11, 2006 –
Belgium easily beats
Azerbaijan 3–0 in
Anderlecht. For the first time since long, the Belgian team manages to score more than one goal when it matters. • October 17, 2006 – After a red card for
Daniele Bonera early in the second half, it looked promising for
R.S.C. Anderlecht to take some points in the
UEFA Champions League match at home to
A.C. Milan. However they did not manage to score whereas
Kaká for Milan did with a slightly deviated shot from about 20 meters. The game ended 0–1. • October 19, 2006 – In the
UEFA Cup 2006-07,
Bayer Leverkusen holds
Club Brugge to a 1–1 draw in
Bruges. In
Vienna,
S.V. Zulte-Waregem beats
Austria Vienna 4–1 with the help of three goals from
Tim Matthys. • October 21–22, 2006 – Apart from
Mons, who already joined (and got eliminated) in round 4, the other teams from the first division enter the
Belgian Cup in round 6 during this weekend.
Charleroi,
Beveren and
Lokeren lose to
Hamme,
Lierse and
Antwerp respectively on Saturday. While on Sunday
Cercle Brugge and
Brussels, two more teams from the first division are also knocked out of the cup. With one more match of
Round 6 to go, only 11 remain. For
Lierse, this is the very first victory this season, as they are in last position in the league with just 1 point out of 9 matches. • October 25, 2006 –
KV Mechelen is the last team to qualify for
Round 7 of the Belgian Cup as they beat
Germinal Beerschot 1-0 after
extra time. • October 26, 2006 – The draw for the
Seventh round of the Belgian Cup yields no big clashes as
Standard Liège and
R.S.C. Anderlecht get home matches against
Division Two teams and
RC Genk and
Club Brugge also play at home against
Mouscron and
Westerlo. • October 29, 2006 – After losing in the cup to
Belgian Second Division team
Antwerp and a 4–1 loss to
Westerlo in the league,
Ariël Jacobs is the second manager to get fired this season as he is sacked by
Lokeren.
November • November 1, 2006 –
R.S.C. Anderlecht loses by a harsh 4-1 margin to
A.C. Milan in the
UEFA Champions League, although they had numerous chances in the last half-hour to come back to 3–2.
Kaká had however already scored three times. • November 2, 2006 – In the
UEFA Cup 2006-07,
S.V. Zulte-Waregem surprises again as they now beat
Sparta Prague 3–1, they are now almost sure of qualification for the next round. Meanwhile,
Club Brugge has a lot of work to do as they lose 3–1 to
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. • November 7, 2006 –
Thomas Caers quits his job as manager of
Sint Truiden as he feels the players don't respect him anymore after a series of bad results. Meanwhile, rumours are saying
Lokeren could soon be giving
Slavoljub Muslin a contract with the club as their new manager. • November 13, 2006 –
René Trost agrees with the management of
Lierse to split up and each go their own way. At that time Lierse is in last position, with two points out of 12 matches. • November 15, 2006 – The
Belgium national team loses their home match against
Poland 0-1 after a shameful performance in which they did not succeed in creating good scoring opportunities. • November 21, 2006 –
R.S.C. Anderlecht is eliminated from the
UEFA Champions League as they play 2–2 in
Lyon against
Lille OSC, but since
AEK Athens beats
A.C. Milan 1–0 at home,
R.S.C. Anderlecht can only finish third at best. • November 22, 2006 –
Lierse finds a new manager as
Kjetil Rekdal is contracted to try to keep the team in the first division. In
Sint Truiden,
Henk Houwaart is the new manager. • November 23, 2006 – In the
UEFA Cup 2006–07,
Club Brugge plays a good match but is not rewarded as they only manage a 1–1 draw against
Romanian side
Dinamo Bucharest, they now need to win against
Beşiktaş J.K. to have a chance of progressing. In
Barcelona,
S.V. Zulte-Waregem gets beaten 6-2 by
Espanyol and so they lose their good looking goal difference, however they still have a good chance of progressing. • November 26, 2006 –
Lokeren announces that
Slavoljub Muslin will sign a contract as the new manager within the next few days. • November 29, 2006 –
Beşiktaş J.K. beats
Club Brugge 2-1 and thereby eliminates
Club Brugge in
UEFA Cup 2006-07. • November 30, 2006 – Because of beneficial results in Group F,
S.V. Zulte-Waregem is qualified for the next round of the
UEFA Cup 2006-07 without playing themselves. They still have one match left in the group phase against
Ajax Amsterdam.
December • December 6, 2006 – In the
UEFA Champions League,
R.S.C. Anderlecht gives away a 2–0 lead to
AEK Athens to end in a 2–2 draw, but would have been eliminated from European football entirely anyway, as
Lille OSC beat
A.C. Milan in
Milan 2–0. • December 8, 2006 –
RC Genk, already sure of being in first position at the half way mark of the championship after only 15 out of 34 matches, lose their first match of the season in and against
Charleroi by a big 4-1 margin. However they still have six-point lead over
R.S.C. Anderlecht and seven over
Club Brugge, although both those teams have played one match less and so could close in to three and four points respectively with just one match to go before the winter-break. • December 13, 2006 –
Ajax Amsterdam is too strong for
S.V. Zulte-Waregem, as Zulte-Waregem gets beaten 0–3 at home in the
UEFA Cup 2006-07. However they were already sure of qualifying for the next round. • December 15, 2006 – In the draw for the
UEFA Cup 2006-07 Round of 32,
S.V. Zulte-Waregem gets paired with
Newcastle United F.C. The winner of the tie will face the winner of
Fenerbahçe against
AZ Alkmaar. • December 16, 2006 – On the last day of the first half of the season,
Lierse finally manages to win a match in the first division as they beat
Lokeren 1–0.
RC Genk end 2006 with 40 points, three points clear of
R.S.C. Anderlecht and seven over
Gent.
Club Brugge are nine points behind but have one match left against their city-rivals,
Cercle Brugge. • December 20, 2006 – The
Belgian Supercup, originally planned to be played on July 22 but abandoned due to heavy rainfall, is won by title-holders
R.S.C. Anderlecht as they beat cup-winners
S.V. Zulte-Waregem 3–1.
January • January 13–14, 2007 – In the
Seventh round of the Belgian Cup, the current top five of the first division all progress to the quarter-finals together with
Division Two teams
Antwerp,
Kortrijk and
KV Mechelen. • January 17, 2007 –
RC Genk and
R.S.C. Anderlecht are paired together in the draw for the quarter-finals for the
Belgian Cup. The other matches are
Antwerp vs.
Standard Liège,
Club Brugge vs.
Kortrijk and
Gent vs.
KV Mechelen. • January 17, 2007 –
Mbark Boussoufa of
R.S.C. Anderlecht wins the
Belgian Golden Shoe as the best player of 2006. In the second half of the 2005–06 season he helped
Gent to reach fourth place and in the current season he was one of the better players of Anderlecht. Anderlecht is the big winner of the day as the top-4 of the overall rankings are also Anderlecht players and all the side awards go to Anderlecht players,
Daniel Zítka is chosen to be the best goalkeeper,
Lucas Biglia wins the rookie of the year award and
Mohammed Tchité scored the most beautiful goal of the season, away to
Brussels. • January 28, 2007 – After losing 0–1 at home to
Roeselare and a disappointing fifth place in the standings, 12 points behind leaders
RC Genk,
Emilio Ferrera is fired as manager of
Club Brugge.
Cedomir Janevski is appointed as the new manager.
February • February 1, 2007 – At
R.E. Mouscron,
Gil Vandenbrouck resigns after disappointing results and is given another job at the club.
Ariël Jacobs is the new coach. • February 7, 2007 – The
Red Devils lose 0–2 at home to the
Czech Republic. Yet another bad result makes few people in Belgium believe that Belgium will not lose to
Portugal in March. • February 14, 2007 – In
Ghent,
Zulte-Waregem loses 3–1 to
Newcastle United in the first leg of their Round of 32 match in the
UEFA Cup. • February 22, 2007 – In the
UEFA Cup, the return match in
Newcastle upon Tyne is also lost as
Obafemi Martins scores the only goal in the match for
Newcastle United.
Zulte-Waregem is now eliminated, but after beating
Lokomotiv Moscow,
Sparta Prague and
Austria Wien and having played against
Espanyol Barcelona,
Ajax Amsterdam and
Newcastle United the team has had an exceptional season in Europe, certainly as it's only their second season back at the highest level of Belgian football. With this elimination, all Belgian teams have now been eliminated from European football. • February 28, 2007 – In the league,
K.R.C. Genk and
R.S.C. Anderlecht seem to be the two only teams left able to win the title as they are several points ahead of
Standard Liège and
K.A.A. Gent in third and fourth. With a match Genk vs. Anderlecht coming up in two weeks which will probably be decisive for the championship, all eyes are on the quarter-finals of the
Belgian Cup match between both those teams. In a very exciting match, Anderlecht wins the first leg 0–1 in
Genk and has a good chance to progress to the semi-finals. The other quarter finals:
Antwerp 0-1
Standard Liège,
Club Brugge 2-1
Kortrijk and
Gent 2-1
KV Mechelen.
March • March 11, 2007 – The
Genk–
Anderlecht match ends in a 1–1 draw, meaning Genk retains its two-point lead over Anderlecht with nine matches to play. • March 24, 2007 – Belgium loses 4–0 to
Portugal in a qualifying match for Euro 2008. After a scoreless first-half,
Cristiano Ronaldo and
Ricardo Quaresma lead Portugal to victory. ==National team==