2017–18 Slovak First Football League

The 2017–18 Slovak First Football League was the 25th season of first-tier football league in Slovakia, since its establishment in 1993. MŠK Žilina were the defending champions, after winning their 7th Slovak championship.

Format changes

Starting from this season, the competition format was changed. The previous 33-match round robin structure was replaced by a regular season round of 22 games and a playoff round, where 12 teams are divided into two groups: championship group and relegation group. The playoff round uses a 10-game round robin structure.
The top team in the championship group wins the league title and qualifies to next season's Champions League qualification; the runner-up and 3rd team obtain spots of next season's Europa League Qualification. The bottom team of the relegation group will be relegated to next season's 2. Liga and replaced by the 2. Liga winner. The second-bottom ranked team will play a two-leg relegation playoff with the runner-up of 2. Liga.
Should one of the top 3 teams wins of the 2017-18 Slovak Cup, Europa League qualification playoffs will be held among the 4th, 5th, 6th team in the championship group and the top team of the relegation round. The 4th team plays the top team of the relegation group and the 5th plays the 6th in the semifinals. Winners of the semifinals will play the final to determine the Europa League qualification spot. Europa League qualification playoff games will be one-leg and played at the home pitch of the higher-ranked team.

Teams

A total of 12 teams were contesting the league, including 11 sides from the 2016–17 season and one promoted from the 2. liga.
Withdrawal of Spartak Myjava was confirmed on 21 December 2016. The withdrawn team was meant to be replaced initially by FC VSS Košice, but that team was rejected a promotion and went into bankruptcy. FC Nitra was promoted instead of Košice.
2017–18 Teams

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2016–17 season
AS Trenčín	Trenčín	Štadión na Sihoti		4th in Fortuna Liga
FK DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda	Dunajská Streda	MOL Aréna		7th in Fortuna Liga
FK Železiarne Podbrezová	Podbrezová	ZELPO Aréna		5th in Fortuna Liga
FK Senica	Senica	OMS Arena		9th in Fortuna Liga
MFK Zemplín Michalovce	Michalovce	Mestský futbalový štadión		8th in Fortuna Liga
MFK Ružomberok	Ružomberok	Štadión pod Čebraťom		3rd in Fortuna Liga
FC Nitra	Nitra	Stadium pod Zoborom		2nd in 2. Liga
1. FC Tatran Prešov	Prešov	NTC Poprad¹		11th in Fortuna Liga
MŠK Žilina	Žilina	Štadión pod Dubňom
ŠK Slovan Bratislava	Bratislava	Pasienky		2nd in Fortuna Liga
FC Spartak Trnava	Trnava	Stadium Antona Malatinského		6th in Fortuna Liga
FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Zlaté Moravce	FC ViOn Stadium		10th in Fortuna Liga

¹Tatran played their home matches in this season at NTC Poprad in Poprad while Tatran Stadium went under renovation.

AS Trenčín	Dunajská Streda	Podbrezová	Michalovce
Štadión na Sihoti	MOL Aréna UEFA Stadium	ZELPO Aréna	Mestský futbalový štadión
Capacity: 3,500	Capacity: 9,901	Capacity: 4,061	Capacity: 4,440

FK Senica	MFK Ružomberok	MŠK Žilina	Slovan Bratislava
OMS Arena UEFA Stadium	Štadión pod Čebraťom	Štadión pod Dubňom UEFA Stadium	Pasienky
Capacity: 5,070	Capacity: 4,817	Capacity: 11,258	Capacity: 12,000

Spartak Trnava	Tatran Prešov	Zlaté Moravce	FC Nitra
ŠAM - City Arena UEFA Stadium	NTC Poprad UEFA Stadium	Štadión FC ViOn	Štadión pod Zoborom
Capacity: 19,200	Capacity: 5,700	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 5,500

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Spartak Trnava	Miroslav Karhan	End of contract	28 5 2017	Pre-season	Nestor El Maestro	1 6 2017
DAC Dunajská Streda	Csaba László	End of contract	9 6 2017	Pre-season	Marco Rossi	11 6 2017
FK Senica	Miroslav Mentel	End of contract	16 6 2017	Pre-season	Ivan Vrabec	16 6 2017
FK Senica	Ivan Vrabec	Released	11 9 2017	12	Ladislav Hudec	11 9 2017
AS Trenčín	Martin Ševela	Released	12 9 2017	10	:cs:Vladimír Cifranič\|Vladimír Cifranič Roman Marčok	12 9 2017
1. FC Tatran Prešov	Miroslav Jantek	Released	14 9 2017	10	Pavol Mlynár	24 9 2017
FK Železiarne Podbrezová	Karol Praženica	Released	19 9 2017	11	Marek Fabuľa	19 9 2017
1. FC Tatran Prešov	Pavol Mlynár	End of interim spell	9 10 2017	11	Serhiy Kovalets	9 10 2017
ŠK Slovan Bratislava	Ivan Vukomanović	Released	30 10 2017	3	Martin Ševela	30 10 2017
1. FC Tatran Prešov	Serhiy Kovalets	Released	24 1 2018	11	Anton Mišovec	24 1 2018
FK Senica	Ladislav Hudec	Manager position	8 2 2018	12	Ton Caanen	8 2 2018

Regular season

League table

Results

Each team plays home-and-away against every other team in the league, for a total of 22 matches played each.

Championship group

Relegation group

Europa League play-offs

Teams placed between 4th and 7th position will take part in the Europa league play-offs. The best of them will play against the fourth-placed of the championship play-offs to determine the Europa League play-off winners. The winners will qualify for the first qualifying round of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League.
All times are UTC+2.

Semi-finals

Final

Relegation play-offs

Team placed 11th in the relegation match will face 2nd team from 2. Liga 2017–18 to for two spots in the next season.
All times are UTC+2.

First leg

Second leg

2–2 on aggregate. FK Senica won on away goal.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Samuel Mráz	Žilina	21^a
2	Rangelo Janga	AS Trenčín	14
3	Jakub Mareš	ŠK Slovan	12
3	Aleksandar Čavrić	ŠK Slovan	12
5	Róbert Gešnábel	Z.Moravce /Ružomberok	11
6	Erik Pačinda	DAC D.Streda	10
6	Antonio Mance	AS Trenčín	10
8	Filip Hološko	ŠK Slovan	8
8	Hilary Gong	AS Trenčin	8
8	Roland Černák	Prešov /D.Streda	8
8	Martin Koscelník	Michalovce	8

^a Included 2 play-off goals

Top assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Desley Ubbink	Trenčín	17
2	Hilary Gong	Trenčín	12
3	Nikolas Špalek	Žilina	8
3	Dávid Holman	Slovan	8
3	Erik Daniel	Ružomberok	8
6	Giorgi Beridze	Trenčín	7
7	Peter Orávik	Zl. Moravce	6
7	Ricky van Haaren	Trenčín/Slovan	6
7	Marvin Egho	Trnava	6
7	Lukáš Skovajsa	Trenčín	6

Hat-tricks

Round	Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
1	Jakub Mareš	Slovan Bratislava	Tatran Prešov	1–5	23 July 2017
21	Aleksandar Čavrić	Slovan Bratislava	MŠK Žilina	6–0	24 February 2018
22	Antonio Mance	AS Trenčín	Zl. Moravce	1–4	3 March 2018
30	Frank Castañeda	FK Senica	Zl. Moravce	3–1	5 May 2018

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Lukáš Hroššo	FC Nitra	14
2	Patrik Macej	DAC D.Streda	13
3	Martin Vantruba	Spartak Trnava	11
3	Miloš Volešák	Žilina	11
5	Martin Kuciak	Podbrezová	10
6	Matúš Macík	MFK Ružomberok	8
7	Matúš Kira	Michalovce	7
8	Pavel Kováč	Zl. Moravce	5
8	Michal Šulla	Slovan	5
8	Igor Šemrinec	Trenčín	5

Discipline

Player

Most yellow cards: 12
* Yasin Pehlivan
Most red cards: 2
* Ján Krivák
* Damián Bariš
Club
Most yellow cards: 75
*FK Senica
Most red cards: 7
*FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce
Awards

Player of the Month

Month	Player	Club	Ref
July/August	Lukáš Hroššo	FC Nitra
September	Erik Jirka	Spartak Trnava
October	Samuel Mráz	MŠK Žilina
Nov/Dec	Erik Pačinda	Dunajská Streda
Feb/Mar	Marvin Egho	Spartak Trnava
April	Samuel Mráz	MŠK Žilina
May	Samuel Mráz	MŠK Žilina

Top Eleven

Source:

Goalkeeper: Lukáš Hroššo
Defence: Erick Davis, Ľubomír Šatka, Boris Godál, Boris Sekulić
Midfield: Erik Pačinda, Marin Ljubičić, Aschraf El Mahdioui, Aleksandar Čavrić
Attack: Marvin Egho, Samuel Mráz
Top Eleven U-21