2015–16 Slovak First Football League

The 2015–16 Slovak First Football League (known as the Slovak Fortuna Liga^[2] for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season of the first-tier football league in Slovakia since its establishment in 1993. AS Trenčín were the defending champions, after winning their 1st Slovak championship.

Fortuna Liga

Season	2015–16
Dates	18 July 2015 – 20 May 2016
Champions	Trenčín
Relegated	Skalica
Champions League	Trenčín
Europa League	Slovan Bratislava Spartak Myjava Spartak Trnava
Matches played	198
Goals scored	524 (2.65 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gino van Kessel (17 goals)
Biggest home win	Žilina 6–0 ViOn Zlaté Moravce (18 March 2016)
Biggest away win	Slovan Bratislava 0–4 Trenčín (8 May 2016)
Highest scoring	Podbrezová 6–2 Michalovce (1 August 2015) Trenčín 5–3 Spartak Trnava (13 September 2015)
Highest attendance	15,101 (Sp.Trnava–Slovan)
Lowest attendance	0 (Trenčín-Podbrezová)
Average attendance	2413 [1]
← 2014–15 2016–17 → All statistics correct as of 23 June 2015.

Teams

Trenčín

Spartak Myjava

Senica

Podbrezová

Dunajská Streda

Ružomberok

Skalica

Slovan

Trnava

Žilina

Zlaté Moravce

Michalovce

Location of teams in Fortuna Liga 2015–16

A total of 12 teams competed in the league, including 10 sides from the 2014–15 season and two who were promoted from the 2. liga.

Relegation for MFK Košice and FK Dukla Banská Bystrica to the 2015–16 DOXXbet liga was confirmed on 30 May 2015. These two relegated teams were replaced by 2. liga champion MFK Zemplín Michalovce and 2. liga runner-up MFK Skalica. Both teams made their debut at the highest level. Despite that MFK Košice finished as 6th, they did not obtain a licence for the 2015–16 season.^[3]

Stadiums and locations

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2014–15 season
AS Trenčín	Trenčín	Štadión na Sihoti	3,500	Champions
DAC Dunajská Streda	Dunajská Streda	Mestský štadión	16,410	8th in Fortuna Liga
FO ŽP Šport Podbrezová	Podbrezová	ZELPO Aréna[Note 1]	4,061	11th in Fortuna Liga
FK Senica	Senica	OMS Arena	5,070	5th in Fortuna Liga
Michalovce	Michalovce	Mestský futbalový štadión	4,440	2. Liga Champions
MFK Ružomberok	Ružomberok	Štadión pod Čebraťom[Note 2]	4,817	7th in Fortuna Liga
MFK Skalica	Skalica	Mestský štadión Skalica[Note 3]	3,000	2nd in 2. Liga
MŠK Žilina	Žilina	Štadión pod Dubňom	11,181	2nd in Fortuna Liga
Slovan Bratislava	Bratislava	Pasienky	12,000	3rd in Fortuna Liga
Spartak Myjava	Myjava	Stadium Myjava	2,709	9th in Fortuna Liga
Spartak Trnava	Trnava	Stadium Antona Malatinského	19,200	4th in Fortuna Liga
ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Zlaté Moravce	FC ViOn Stadium	4,000	10th in Fortuna Liga

Personnel and kits

Team	President	Manager	Captain	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
AS Trenčín	Tscheu La Ling	Martin Ševela	Peter Kleščík	Adidas	AEGON
DAC Dunajská Streda	Oszkár Világi	Tomislav Marić	Ľubomír Michalík	Adidas	Kukkonia
FO ŽP Šport Podbrezová	Július Kriváň	Marek Fabuľa	Jaroslav Kostelný	Adidas	Železiarne Podbrezová
FK Senica	Vladimír Levársky	Juraj Sabol	Petr Pavlík	hummel	Business Funding Solutions
MFK Ružomberok	Milan Fiľo	Ladislav Pecko	Marek Sapara	Adidas	MAESTRO
MŠK Žilina	Jozef Antošík	Adrián Guľa	Viktor Pečovský	Nike	Preto
Slovan Bratislava	Ivan Kmotrík	Nikodimos Papavasiliou	Marko Milinković	Adidas	niké
Spartak Myjava	Pavel Halabrín	Norbert Hrnčár	Štefan Pekár	Uhlsport	NAD RESS
Spartak Trnava	Michal Pethö	Miroslav Karhan	Martin Mikovič	Adidas	ŽOS Trnava, ŠKODA
ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Karol Škula	Libor Fašiang	Pavel Kováč	Erreà	ViOn
MFK Michalovce	Igor Šoltinský	Stanislav Griga	Marián Kelemen	Adidas	Scorp
MFK Skalica	Peter Bartoš	Štefan Horný	Pavol Majerník	Nike

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Spartak Myjava	Peter Gergely	Sacked	30 May 2015[4]	Pre-season	Norbert Hrnčár	2 June 2015[4]
FO ŽP Šport Podbrezová	Branislav Benko	End of caretaker spell	30 May 2015[5]		Zdenko Frťala	15 June 2015[5]
FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Branislav Mráz	signed by FC Spartak Trnava	16 June 2015[6]		Milko Gjurovski	15 June 2015[6]
MFK Skalica	Štefan Horný	End of contract	30 June 2015[7]		Aleš Křeček	3 July 2015[8]
ŠK Slovan Bratislava	Dušan Tittel	Resigned	21 August 2015[9]	4th	Nikodimos Papavasiliou	21 August 2015[9]
FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Milko Gjurovski	Sacked	23 August 2015[10]	11th	Libor Fašiang	27 August 2015[10]
FC Spartak Trnava	Juraj Jarábek	Resigned	28 August 2015[11]	9th	Branislav Mráz	28 August 2015[11]
MFK Ružomberok	Ivan Galád	Sacked	2 September 2015[12]	10th	Ladislav Pecko	11 September 2015[13]
FC Spartak Trnava	Branislav Mráz	End of interim contract	2 September 2015[14]	6th	Ivan Hucko	2 September 2015[14]
FK Senica	Eduard Pagáč	Sacked	8 September 2015[15]	8th	Juraj Sabol	8 September 2015[15]
Podbrezová	Zdenko Frťala	Sacked	21 September 2015	12th	Marek Fabuľa	21 September 2015[16]
MFK Skalica	Aleš Křeček	Sacked	28 October 2015	11th	Štefan Horný	28 October 2015[17]
Zemplín Michalovce	František Šturma	Sacked	30 December 2015	10th	Stanislav Griga	30 December 2015[18]
FC Spartak Trnava	Ivan Hucko	Resigned	21 April 2015	5th	Miroslav Karhan	21 April 2015[19]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Trenčín (C)	33	26	3	4	73	28	+45	81	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round[a]
2	Slovan Bratislava	33	20	9	4	50	25	+25	69	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	Spartak Myjava	33	18	6	9	41	33	+8	60
4	Spartak Trnava	33	16	6	11	49	41	+8	54
5	Žilina	33	14	6	13	58	46	+12	48
6	Ružomberok	33	12	9	12	42	41	+1	45
7	DAC Dunajská Streda	33	12	7	14	38	42	−4	43
8	Podbrezová	33	10	7	16	43	46	−3	37
9	ViOn Zlaté Moravce	33	7	10	16	38	57	−19	31
10	Senica	33	7	9	17	30	48	−18	30
11	Zemplín Michalovce	33	7	8	18	32	55	−23	29
12	Skalica (R)	33	6	6	21	30	62	−32	24	Relegation to 2. Liga

Source: Fortuna Liga (in Slovak), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Play-off.^[20]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Trenčín qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2015–16 Slovak Cup. However, since they already qualified for European competition based on their league position, the spot awarded to the cup winners was passed down the league.

Results

Home \ Away	TRE	DAC	POD	SEN	ZMI	RUŽ	SKA	ŽIL	SLO	MYJ	TRN	ZLM	TRE	DAC	POD	SEN	ZMI	RUŽ	SKA	ŽIL	SLO	MYJ	TRN	ZLM
Trenčín		4–1	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	3–0	1–4	0–2	4–1	5–3	4–1			2–0			1–0	2–1	5–2		3–1	1–3
DAC Dunajská Streda	0–2		5–1	2–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–1	2–1	2–0	1–0		1–0	3–1					0–2	1–1
Podbrezová	0–2	0–0		1–0	6–2	0–1	3–0	2–3	0–1	1–2	0–2	2–2					2–0	3–1		2–0		2–0	3–0
Senica	1–4	2–3	3–1		1–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	0–2		0–1			0–1	2–2		1–3	1–1
Zemplín Michalovce	0–1	0–3	2–0	1–3		1–3	3–1	3–0	1–2	1–2	0–1	2–1	1–3	1–1		2–1					1–1			1–1
Ružomberok	0–3	1–0	3–2	0–1	2–2		1–3	2–2	1–1	1–0	0–0	5–2		3–0			0–0		3–1	0–2			3–1	1–1
Skalica	1–2	2–2	0–0	0–3	1–0	0–1		1–0	0–2	0–0	2–3	2–3		2–1	2–1		0–0					1–2		1–0
Žilina	2–3	1–1	1–3	4–1	2–0	2–0	2–2		3–0	3–0	2–0	5–1		4–1		0–0	2–3		1–0		0–0			6–0
Slovan Bratislava	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	4–1	2–1		0–1	2–0	2–0	0–4		2–2			3–1	2–0			0–1	4–1
Spartak Myjava	0–1	3–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	3–0	1–4	0–2		4–2	0–0					3–0	1–0		0–0			1–0	1–0
Spartak Trnava	1–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–1	2–1	2–0	0–0	2–1		2–1		1–0		2–0	3–0		5–1	3–0				3–2
ViOn Zlaté Moravce	0–1	2–1	2–2	3–0	1–1	0–2	3–1	4–0	1–2	1–3	2–2		0–2	1–0	0–0	2–0					0–0

Source: Fortuna Liga (in Slovak)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Updated through matches played on 20 May 2016.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[21]
1	Gino van Kessel	AS Trenčín	17
2	Matúš Bero	AS Trenčín	15
	David Depetris	Spartak Trnava
4	Tamás Priskin	Slovan Bratislava	12
5	Peter Sládek	Spartak Myjava	11
	Leandre Tawamba	ViOn Zlaté Moravce
7	Róbert Vittek	Slovan Bratislava	10
	Erik Pačinda	DAC Dunajská Streda
	Miloš Lačný	MFK Ružomberok
10	Marques De Souza	Zlaté Moravce	9
	Ákos Szarka	DAC Dunajska Streda

Hat-tricks

Round	Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
7	Ákos Szarka4	DAC D.Streda	Podbrezová	5–1	29 August 2015	[22]
11	Matúš Bero	AS Trenčín	MFK Skalica	3–0	26 September 2015	[23]
17	Leandre Tawamba	Zlaté Moravce	MFK Skalica	3–1	21 November 2015	[24]
24	Filip Hlohovský	MŠK Žilina	Zlaté Moravce	6–0	18 March 2016	[25]
27	David Depetris	Spartak Trnava	MFK Skalica	5–1	16 April 2016	[26]
32	Gino van Kessel4	AS Trenčín	MŠK Žilina	5–2	13 May 2016	[27]

Note

⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Clean sheets

Updated through matches played on 20 May 2016

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[28]
1	Igor Šemrinec	AS Trenčin	15
2	Ján Mucha	Slovan Bratislava	14
3	Miloš Volešák	MŠK Žilina	11
	Martin Kuciak	FO ZP Sport Podbrezová
	Matúš Hruška	Spartak Myjava
6	Tomáš Tujvel	DAC Dunajská Streda	8
7	Michal Šulla	FK Senica	7
	Darko Tofiloski	MFK Ružomberok
9	Ľuboš Kamenár	Spartak Trnava	6
	Adam Jakubech	Spartak Trnava
	Marián Kelemen	Zemplin Michalovce

Discipline

As of matches played on 20 May 2016.

Player

• Most yellow cards: 12^[29]
  • Marin Ljubičić (DAC Dunajska Streda)

• Most red cards: 3^[30]
  • Ján Maslo (MFK Ružomberok)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 95 ^[29]
  • FC Spartak Trnava

• Most red cards: 8 ^[30]
  • MFK Ružomberok

Awards

Player of the Month

Month	Player	Club	Ref
August	Ákos Szarka	DAC D.Streda	[31]
September	Matúš Bero	AS Trenčín	[32]
October	Léandre Tawamba	Zlaté Moravce	[33]
November	Gino van Kessel	AS Trenčín	[34]
March	Miloš Lačný	MFK Ružomberok	[35]
April	Ryan Koolwijk	AS Trenčín	[36]
May	Gino van Kessel	AS Trenčín	[37]

Top Eleven

Source:^[38]

• Goalkeeper: Ján Mucha (Slovan Bratislava)
• Defence: Martin Šulek (AS Trenčín), Kornel Saláta (Slovan Bratislava), Milan Škriniar (MŠK Žilina), Kingsley Madu (AS Trenčín)
• Midfield: Viktor Pečovský (MŠK Žilina), Ibrahim Rabiu (AS Trenčín), Gino van Kessel (AS Trenčín), Matúš Bero (AS Trenčín), Erik Pačinda (DAC D.Streda)
• Attack: David Depetris (Spartak Trnava)

Individual awards

Manager of the season

Martin Ševela (AS Trenčín)

Player of the Year

Matúš Bero (AS Trenčín)

Young player of the Year

Martin Šulek (AS Trenčín)

See also

• 2015–16 Slovak Cup
• 2015–16 2. Liga (Slovakia)
• List of transfers winter 2015–16
• List of transfers summer 2015
• List of foreign players

Notes

1. Some matches were played at Mestský štadión Brezno in Brezno while ZELPO Aréna had been under renovation.
2. Some matches were played at NTC Poprad in Poprad while Štadión MFK Ružomberok had been under renovation.
3. Some matches were played at OMS Arena in Senica while Mestský štadión Skalica had been under renovation.