Slovak First Football League

The Slovak First Football League (Slovak: 1. slovenská futbalová liga), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Slovak football league system.^[1] It was formed in 1993 following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The record for most titles is fifteen, held by Slovan Bratislava, who are the current title holders.

Niké liga

Organising body	Slovak Football Association
Founded	1993
Country	Slovakia
Confederation	UEFA
Number of clubs	12
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	2. liga
Domestic cup(s)	Slovak Cup
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League UEFA Conference League
Current champions	Slovan Bratislava (15th title) (2024–25)
Most championships	Slovan Bratislava (15 titles)
Broadcaster(s)	Domestic Markíza STVR (highlights) International Eleven Sports OneFootball
Website	nikeliga.sk
Current: 2025–26 Slovak First Football League

History

The current independent top football division in Slovakia was formed in 1993 as a result of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The predecessors of the current top football division in Slovakia were Zväzové Majstrovstvá Slovenska (1925–1933) and Slovenská liga (1938–1944).

Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia (1918–1939 and 1945–1993) and the best Slovak clubs played in the joint Czechoslovak First League. Three Slovak clubs managed to win it.^[2]

Zväzové Majstrovstvá Slovenska (1925–1933)

Season	Champions (number of titles)	Runners-up	Third place
1925–26	1. ČsŠK Bratislava
1926–27	1. ČsŠK Bratislava
1927–28	SK Žilina
1928–29	SK Žilina
1929–30	1. ČsŠK Bratislava
1930–31	Ligeti SC
1931–32	1. ČsŠK Bratislava
1932–33	SC Rusj Uzhorod

Slovenská liga (1938–1944)

Season	Champions (number of titles)	Runners-up	Third place
1938–39	AC Sparta Považská Bystrica	ŠK Bratislava	MŠK Žilina
1939–40	ŠK Bratislava	AC Sparta Považská Bystrica	MŠK Žilina
1940–41	ŠK Bratislava	FC Vrútky	AC Sparta Považská Bystrica
1941–42	ŠK Bratislava	FC Vrútky	MŠK Žilina
1942–43	OAP Bratislava	ŠK Bratislava	AC Sparta Považská Bystrica
1943–44	ŠK Bratislava	OAP Bratislava	TSS Trnava
1944–45	abandoned in September 1944

Slovak winners of the Czechoslovak 1. League (1945–1993)

Club	Winners	Winning seasons
Slovan Bratislava	8	1949, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1969–70, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1991–92
Spartak Trnava	5	1967–68, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73
Inter Bratislava	1	1958–59

Competition format

Over the years, the number of teams competing in the top division has varied. The current number of 12 teams has been in effect since the 2006–07 season. However, there were also changes in the playing format afterwards. In the current format, which has been in effect since the 2017–18 season, teams play home-and-away against every other team in the regular stage, for a total of 22 matches each. The table is then divided into two halves of 6 teams each – the top 6 play in the championship group and the bottom 6 play in the relegation group. Within these groups, teams play home-and-away each other again, for a total of 10 matches each.

Period	Number of teams
1993–1996	12
1996–2000	16
2000–2006	10
2006–present	12

Sponsorship

Period	Sponsor	Name
1993–1997	No sponsor	1. liga
1997–2002	Reemtsma	Mars superliga
2002–2003	No sponsor	1. liga
2003–2014	Heineken	Corgoň liga[3]
2014–2023	Fortuna	Fortuna liga[4]
2023–present	Niké	Niké liga[5]

Clubs

Champions

Season	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Top scorer	Goals	Team
1993–94	Slovan Bratislava (1)	Inter Bratislava	DAC Dunajská Streda	Pavol Diňa	19	DAC Dunajská Streda
1994–95	Slovan Bratislava (2)	1. FC Košice	Inter Bratislava	Robert Semenik	18	Dukla Banská Bystrica
1995–96	Slovan Bratislava (3)	1. FC Košice	Spartak Trnava	Robert Semenik	29	1. FC Košice
1996–97	1. FC Košice (1)	Spartak Trnava	Slovan Bratislava	Jozef Kožlej	22	1. FC Košice
1997–98	1. FC Košice (2)	Spartak Trnava	Inter Bratislava	Ľubomír Luhový	17	Spartak Trnava
1998–99	Slovan Bratislava (4)	Inter Bratislava	Spartak Trnava	Martin Fabuš	19	Trenčín
1999–2000	Inter Bratislava (1)	1. FC Košice	Slovan Bratislava	Szilárd Németh	16	Inter Bratislava
2000–01	Inter Bratislava (2)	Slovan Bratislava	Ružomberok	Szilárd Németh	23	Inter Bratislava
2001–02	Žilina (1)	Púchov	Inter Bratislava	Marek Mintál	21	Žilina
2002–03	Žilina (2)	Petržalka	Slovan Bratislava	Martin Fabuš Marek Mintál	20	Trenčín, Žilina Žilina
2003–04	Žilina (3)	Dukla Banská Bystrica	Ružomberok	Roland Števko	17	Ružomberok
2004–05	Petržalka (1)	Žilina	Dukla Banská Bystrica	Filip Šebo	22	Petržalka
2005–06	Ružomberok (1)	Petržalka	Spartak Trnava	Róbert Rák Erik Jendrišek	21	Nitra Ružomberok
2006–07	Žilina (4)	Petržalka	Slovan Bratislava	Tomáš Oravec	16	Petržalka
2007–08	Petržalka (2)	Žilina	Nitra	Ján Novák	17	Košice
2008–09	Slovan Bratislava (5)	Žilina	Spartak Trnava	Pavol Masaryk	15	Slovan Bratislava
2009–10	Žilina (5)	Slovan Bratislava	Dukla Banská Bystrica	Róbert Rák	18	Nitra
2010–11	Slovan Bratislava (6)	Senica	Žilina	Filip Šebo	22	Slovan Bratislava
2011–12	Žilina (6)	Spartak Trnava	Slovan Bratislava	Pavol Masaryk	18	Ružomberok
2012–13	Slovan Bratislava (7)	Senica	Trenčín	David Depetris	16	Trenčín
2013–14	Slovan Bratislava (8)	Trenčín	Spartak Trnava	Tomáš Malec	14	Trenčín
2014–15	Trenčín (1)	Žilina	Slovan Bratislava	Matej Jelić Jan Kalabiška	19	Žilina Senica
2015–16	Trenčín (2)	Slovan Bratislava	Spartak Myjava	Gino van Kessel	17	Trenčín
2016–17	Žilina (7)	Slovan Bratislava	Ružomberok	Filip Hlohovský Seydouba Soumah	20	Žilina Slovan Bratislava
2017–18	Spartak Trnava (1)	Slovan Bratislava	DAC Dunajská Streda	Samuel Mráz	21	Žilina
2018–19	Slovan Bratislava (9)	DAC Dunajská Streda	Ružomberok	Andraž Šporar	29	Slovan Bratislava
2019–20	Slovan Bratislava (10)	Žilina	DAC Dunajská Streda	Andraž Šporar	12	Slovan Bratislava
2020–21	Slovan Bratislava (11)	DAC Dunajská Streda	Spartak Trnava	Dawid Kurminowski	19	Žilina
2021–22	Slovan Bratislava (12)	Ružomberok	Spartak Trnava	Jakub Kadák	13	Trenčín
2022–23	Slovan Bratislava (13)	DAC Dunajská Streda	Spartak Trnava	Nikola Krstović	18	DAC Dunajská Streda
2023–24	Slovan Bratislava (14)	DAC Dunajská Streda	Spartak Trnava	Róbert Polievka Tigran Barseghyan	13	Banská Bystrica Slovan Bratislava
2024–25	Slovan Bratislava (15)	Žilina	Spartak Trnava	Tigran Barseghyan David Strelec	20	Slovan Bratislava

Source for list of championship winners:^[6]

Performance by club

Clubs in bold currently play in the top division.

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Championship seasons	Runners-up seasons
Slovan Bratislava	15	5	1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25	2000–01, 2009–10, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Žilina	7	6	2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2016–17	2004–05, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2014–15, 2019–20, 2024–25
VSS Košice	2	3	1996–97, 1997–98	1994–95, 1995–96, 1999–2000
Artmedia Bratislava	2	3	2004–05, 2007–08	2002–03, 2005–06, 2006–07
Inter Bratislava	2	2	1999–2000, 2000–01	1993–94, 1998–99
Trenčín	2	1	2014–15, 2015–16	2013–14
Spartak Trnava	1	3	2017–18	1996–97, 1997–98, 2011–12
Ružomberok	1	1	2005–06	2021–22
DAC Dunajská Streda	–	4	–	2018–19, 2020–21, 2022–23, 2023–24
Senica	–	2	–	2010–11, 2012–13
Púchov	–	1	–	2001–02
Dukla Banská Bystrica	–	1	–	2003–04

Titles by city

City	Titles	Winning clubs
Bratislava	19	Slovan Bratislava (15), Inter Bratislava (2), Artmedia Bratislava (2)
Žilina	7	Žilina (7)
Košice	2	VSS Košice (2)
Trenčín	2	Trenčín (2)
Ružomberok	1	Ružomberok (1)
Trnava	1	Spartak Trnava (1)

2025–26 season

Twelve clubs will compete in the 2025–26 season.^[7]

Trenčín

Dunajská Streda

Slovan

Trnava

Žilina

Komárno

Ružomberok

Tatran Prešov

Košice

Michalovce

Podbrezová

Skalica

Location of clubs in Slovakia for the 2023–24 season

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
DAC Dunajská Streda	Dunajská Streda	MOL Aréna	12,700
Tatran Prešov	Prešov	Futbal Tatran Arena	6,500
Košice	Košice	Košická futbalová aréna	12,555
Podbrezová	Podbrezová	ZELPO Aréna	4,000
Ružomberok	Ružomberok	Štadión pod Čebraťom	4,876
Skalica	Skalica	Štadión MFK Skalica	2,600
Slovan Bratislava	Bratislava	Tehelné pole	22,500
Spartak Trnava	Trnava	Štadión Antona Malatinského	18,200
Trenčín	Trenčín	Štadión Sihoť	10,000
Zemplín Michalovce	Michalovce	Mestský futbalový štadión	4,440
Komárno	Komárno	ViOn Aréna	4,008
Žilina	Žilina	Štadión pod Dubňom	10,897

All-time league table

The all-time league table is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in Slovak I. liga since its inception in 1993. The table as of the end of 2024–25 season. Teams in bold are part of the 2025–26 Niké liga. There is no club that played all seasons in top-flight. The best clubs in that respect, Žilina and Spartak Trnava, missed 1 season, Slovan Bratislava missed 2 seasons.

Pos	Team	S	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Slovan Bratislava	30	974	563	217	194	1785	954	831	1906
2	MŠK Žilina	31	1038	499	232	307	1768	1165	603	1729
3	Spartak Trnava	31	1030	471	234	321	1440	1119	321	1595
4	MFK Ružomberok	28	944	361	265	318	1222	1154	68	1348
5	AS Trenčín	25	837	316	187	324	1213	1174	39	1163
6	DAC Dunajská Streda	22	698	255	179	264	871	955	(-84)	938 *
7	Dukla Banská Bystrica	22	712	229	190	293	860	943	(-83)	877
8	VSS Košice	19	616	241	148	227	835	799	36	863
9	FC Petržalka	14	463	204	114	145	676	561	115	726
10	Inter Bratislava	14	454	203	102	149	667	519	148	693
11	FC Nitra	18	572	177	128	299	607	875	(-268)	644
12	Tatran Prešov	16	515	148	143	224	529	734	(-205)	577
13	FK Senica	14	448	147	113	186	510	619	(-138)	556
14	ViOn Zlaté Moravce	17	545	139	135	273	553	859	(-306)	552
15	MFK Dubnica	13	424	119	117	188	436	604	(-168)	473
16	Zemplín Michalovce	11	346	96	90	158	384	553	(-169)	378
17	MŠK Púchov	6	216	70	53	93	235	294	(-59)	263
18	Železiarne Podbrezová	8	256	79	62	105	299	369	(-70)	262
19	Chemlon Humenné	7	216	71	43	102	238	323	(-85)	246
20	Baník Prievidza	7	216	59	44	113	239	369	(-130)	212
21	Spartak Myjava	5	132	55	27	50	167	177	(-10)	192
22	ŠKF Sereď	5	155	49	39	67	176	237	(-61)	186
23	Lokomotíva Košice	5	156	48	37	71	180	241	(-61)	174
24	Partizán Bardejov	5	154	45	24	85	159	232	(−73)	159
25	MFK Skalica	4	129	37	31	61	139	183	(-44)	142
26	FC Rimavská Sobota	4	126	35	29	62	129	193	(−64)	134
27	FK Pohronie	4	123	26	42	55	128	179	(-51)	120
28	FC Senec	3	91	18	28	45	85	152	(−67)	82
30	FC Košice	2	64	18	17	29	72	94	(-22)	71
29	Tatran Liptovský Mikuláš	2	64	14	16	34	66	116	(-50)	58
31	KFC Komárno	1	32	11	6	15	36	48	(-12)	39

S = Number of seasons; P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points
^aSpartak Myjava withdrew from the league on 21 December 2016, and their results from season 2016-17 were expunged.

• DAC had 6 points deducted in 2013/14 season.

League or status:

	2024–25 Slovak First Football League
	2024–25 2. Liga (Slovakia)
	2024–25 3. Liga (Slovakia)
	4. Liga (Slovakia)
	Below 4th tier
	Defunct

European competitions

Main article: Slovak football clubs in European competitions

UEFA coefficients

See also: UEFA coefficient

The following data indicates Slovak coefficient rankings between European football leagues.^[8]

Country ranking UEFA League Ranking as of the end 2023/24 season for the period of 2019-2024:[9] 20.  (22) Serbian SuperLiga (23.675) 21.  (20) Ukrainian Premier League (22.800) 22.  (28) Slovak I. Liga (21.250) 23.  (21) Nemzeti Bajnokság I (21.000) 24.  (23) Allsvenskan (20.000)

Club ranking UEFA 5-year Club Ranking as of the August 30 2024 season:[10] 54. Slovan Bratislava (33.500) 158. Spartak Trnava (8.500) 163. DAC Dunajská Streda (8.000) 265. Žilina (5.000) 266. Ružomberok (5.000)

Players

The clubs sell their players to financially stronger clubs from western Europe. Examples of players that have succeeded in notable leagues are Marek Hamšík, who was captain of Italian club SSC Napoli, Peter Pekarík who captained Bundesliga side Hertha BSC or Martin Škrtel, a well-known former Liverpool centre-back who is now the Sporting director of FC Spartak Trnava. Moreover, over the last few years more and more youngsters have been given chances to perform regularly in the league and as the result, many transfers were to be seen. For example Leon Bailey, Milan Škriniar, Stanislav Lobotka or Samuel Kalu could have been seen playing football at Slovak stadiums recently.

Top scorers

As of the end of the 2017–18 season.

Goals	Name	Clubs/goals for the club
125	Juraj Halenár	Inter Bratislava 35, Petržalka 33, Slovan Bratislava 57
120	Róbert Semeník	Dukla Banská Bystrica 72, 1. FC Košice 43, Nitra 5
86	Marek Ujlaky	Spartak Trnava 79, Slovan Bratislava 2, Senec 3, Zlaté Moravce 2
86	Pavol Masaryk	Spartak Trnava 10, Slovan Bratislava 45, Ružomberok 28, Senica 2, Skalica 1
85	Szilárd Németh	Slovan Bratislava 25, 1. FC Košice 21, Inter Bratislava 39
83	Vladimír Kožuch	Spartak Trnava 61, Tatran Prešov 22
81	Martin Fabuš	ODu/AS Trenčín 59, Žilina 17, Dukla Banská Bystrica 5
78	Tomáš Oravec	1. FC Košice 4, Ružomberok 19, Petržalka 28, Žilina 24, Spartak Trnava 3
78	Róbert Rák	Nitra 61, Ružomberok 17
76	Marek Mintál	Žilina 76

Transfers

See also: List of most expensive association football transfers

Record departures

Rank	Player	From	To	Fee	Year
1	Szilárd Németh	Inter Bratislava	Middlesbrough	€6.75 million	2001[11]
2	Andraž Šporar	Slovan Bratislava	Sporting CP	€6 million[A]	2020[12]
3	László Bénes	Žilina	Mönchengladbach	€5.5 million	2016[13]
4	Róbert Boženík	Žilina	Feyenoord	€4.6 million	2020[14]
5	Dávid Hancko	Žilina	Fiorentina	€4.5 million	2018[15]
	Nikola Krstović	DAC Dunajská Streda	US Lecce	€4.5 million	2023[16]
7	Peter Dubovský	Slovan Bratislava	Real Madrid	€4.3 million (110 mil. SKK)	1993[17]
8	Wesley	Trenčín	Club Brugge	€4.2 million	2016[18]
9	Tomáš Hubočan	Žilina	Zenit Saint Petersburg	€3.8 million	2008[19]
10	Matúš Bero	Trenčín	Trabzonspor	€3.5 million	2016[20]

1. Fee may eventually rise above €7 million.

*-unofficial fee

Record arrivals

Rank	Player	From	To	Fee	Year
1	Rabiu Ibrahim	Gent	Slovan Bratislava	€1.0 million	2017[21]
	Marko Tolić	Dinamo Zagreb	Slovan Bratislava	€1.0 million	2024[22]
3	Dávid Holman	Debrecen	Slovan Bratislava	€0.7 million	2017[23]
	Lester Peltier	Trenčín	Slovan Bratislava	€0.7 million	2012[24]
	Marek Špilár	Tatran Prešov	1. FC Košice	€0.7 million (20mil SKK)*	1997[25]
	András Telek	Ferencváros	1. FC Košice	€0.7 million (20mil SKK)*	1997[25]
	David Strelec	Spezia Calcio	Slovan Bratislava	€0.7 million	2024[26]
8	Kenan Bajrić	Olimpija Ljubljana	Slovan Bratislava	€0.6 million	2018[27][28]
	Andraž Šporar	Basel	Slovan Bratislava	€0.6 million	2018[29][30][31]
	Samuel Štefánik	NEC Nijmegen	Slovan Bratislava	€0.6 million	2014[32]