The Belgian First Amateur Division is the third-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division B. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 2016, coming in at the third level and pushing all divisions one level down.
The Belgian First Amateur Division was created in 2016 following an overhaul of the Belgian football league system which saw the number of professional clubs reduced to 24. As a result, from the third level and below only amateur clubs remain.The two remaining levels above the Belgian Provincial leagues were reformed into three amateur levels, namely the Belgian First Amateur Division, the Belgian Second Amateur Division and the Belgian Third Amateur Division. As a result, the Belgian Provincial Leagues dropped to the sixth level of the league system.
The Belgian First Amateur Division was created in 2016 following an overhaul of the Belgian football league system which saw the number of professional clubs reduced to 24. As a result, from the third level and below only amateur clubs remain.The two remaining levels above the Belgian Provincial leagues were reformed into three amateur levels, namely the Belgian First Amateur Division, the Belgian Second Amateur Division and the Belgian Third Amateur Division. As a result, the Belgian Provincial Leagues dropped to the sixth level of the league system.
The season is a regular round-robin tournament with 16 teams. The top four teams after the regular season play a promotion playoff in which they keep 50% of the obtained points during the regular season and the team with the most points after the playoff is promoted to the Belgian First Division B.
Regarding relegation, the bottom three teams are automatically demoted, while the team finishing in 13th place play a relegation playoff together with three teams from the Belgian Second Amateur Division with the playoff winner obtaining a spot in the following season's Belgian First Amateur Division.
The 2017–18 Belgian First Amateur Division is the second season of the third-tier football league in Belgium, as it was established in 2016. The fixtures are scheduled to be announced near the end of June 2017.
- Lommel United was relegated from the 2016–17 Belgian First Division B after finishing last in the relegation play-offs. In the mid-season the team changed their name back to Lommel SK.
- Knokke was promoted after winning the 2016–17 Belgian Second Amateur Division A.
- Berchem Sport was promoted after winning the 2016–17 Belgian Second Amateur Division B.
- Châtelet was promoted after winning the 2016–17 Belgian Second Amateur Division C.
- Aalst won the Second Amateur Division promotion play-offs to obtain the final promotion spot.
Starting from the 2017-2018 season, technical and administrative criteria must be fulfilled by the clubs wishing to take part in this division 1,2:
- Have minimum 7 players under contract with the status "semi-professional".
- Have a stadium of at least 1,500 seats (of which at least 300 seats).
- Have a lot with dimensions of 100-105m long and 64-68m wide.
- Have lighting of at least 300 LUX (derogation to 200 LUX the first season)
- In another area, participants in this division are expected to receive € 50,000 per season from professional football TV rights.
Regular Season
Promotion Play Offs
The teams finishing in the top four positions entered the promotion play-offs. The points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. As Lommel were the only team which obtained a licence and qualified for the promotion play-offs, they were already certain of promotion even before the start of the playoffs.
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