The Belgian league has become the first in Europe to cancel the current season, as the 2019/20 Belgian First Division A campaign is officially over due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Club Brugge will be declared champions with the current league table set to stand. The league says Club Brugge would be awarded the title if the advice is confirmed at a general assembly meeting on 15 April.
Brugge are 15 points clear at the top of the table, ahead of second-place Gent with one game to go before the season-ending playoffs.
The league management board has agreed it is unclear when team training could resume and says it is “very unlikely” any games with fans attending could be played before 30 June.
Belgium has been one of the worst hit countries with the coronavirus, having recorded 15,348 cases, 2,495 recovery and 1,011 deaths so far.
The Belgian league management admits that even playing games in empty stadiums would put stress on public health and security services dealing with the pandemic and that the risk of infecting players would also damage the competition’s integrity.