2016–17 Belgian Third Amateur Division
| Season | 2016–17 |
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2017–18 →
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The 2016–17 Belgian Third Amateur Division is the inaugural season of the division in its current format, as it replaces the former Belgian Fourth Division and is now placed at the fifth-tier of football in Belgium.
The division consists of four separate leagues, leagues A and B consist of teams with a license from the Voetbalfederatie Vlaanderen (VFV, the Dutch speaking wing of the Belgian FA) and contain 16 teams each, while leagues C and D contain teams with a license from the Association des Clubs Francophones de Football (ACFF, the French speaking wing of the RBFA) and contain 14 teams each. The champions from each of the four leagues will promote to the 2017–18 Belgian Second Amateur Division. The fixtures were announced on 5 July 2016.
For the inaugural season the following teams will participate:
The teams finishing in second place in the Third Amateur Division A and Third Amateur Division B will take part in a promotion playoff first round together with three period winners from both divisions. These 8 teams from the VFV will play the first round of a promotion-playoff, with normally only teams promoting to the 2017–18 Belgian Second Amateur Division. Depending on the number of VFV teams relegating from the 2016–17 Belgian First Amateur Division, more teams might get promoted which was the case this season as before the play-offs it was already known that on the VFV side at least four teams would gain promotion through the play-offs, due to the fact that Coxyde vacated its place and the upcoming merger between Izegem and Ingelmunster to form Mandel United. As a result, the four winning teams in the VFV Round 1 immediately received promotion, while the other teams continued the play-offs to determine the order in which possible further places would be awarded.
In Division A, champions Ingelmunster and second placed Wetteren won the three periods, allowing the next three teams in the league to take part: Pepingen, Ronse and Dikkelvenne. In Division B, Sint-Lenaarts and Vosselaar each won one period and were assured of a place in the play-offs before the end of the season, the other places were taken by City Pirates (for finishing second overall) and Diegem (the highest finisher not already qualified).
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