Part 2/8:
The journey through Belgian football's complications can be traced back to a pivotal moment in the summer of 2009. Once a competitive force in European football during the 1970s and 80s, Belgium's attractiveness diminished, leading its league to tumble down to the 14th position in UEFA's coefficient rankings by the late 1990s and early 2000s. The leading clubs in Belgium attributed this decline to an excess of low-quality games against smaller teams, which appeared to limit growth and dilute the competition's appeal to foreign players. In a bid to rectify this situation, these clubs proposed a solution that would allow them to face each other more frequently: the playoff format.