Brussels, Aug 1 (IANS): The 2020/21 edition of the Belgian Pro League will begin from next weekend (August 8), the league has announced. The Belgian football league was one of the first to be abandoned in the wake of coronavirus pandemic in March.

While most football leagues around Europe resumed after the stoppage, Belgian officials had entirely scrapped the season and named then league leaders Club Brugge as winners.

Bottom-placed Waasland-Beveren were relegated and following an appeal, were reinstated into the top-division. This means the Belgian top-division will have 18 teams this season as compared to usual 16, considering no team was relegated to second-tier.

Louvain and Beerschot are the two teams who will join the 16 other teams in the top-tier for the upcoming season.

Earlier, it was announced that the 2020/21 season of England's Premier League will start on September 12 this year and the final match day will take place on May 23, 2021.

Meanwhile, the 2019/20 editions of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, which also had to be halted because of the pandemic, will be concluded in August with the final scheduled for August 23.