Football is the most popular sport inSlovenia and is governed by theFootball Association of Slovenia (Slovene:Nogometna zveza Slovenije). Slovenia has been participating in international football as an independent country since 1991, when the country gained independence fromSFR Yugoslavia. TheSlovenia national football team has qualified for four major tournaments (UEFA Euro 2000,2002 FIFA World Cup,2010 FIFA World Cup, andUEFA Euro 2024).^[1]

The three biggest clubs in Slovenia areMaribor,Mura andOlimpija.^[2]

Since being part ofAustria-Hungary, football came to the territories that are today part of Slovenia in the late 19th century fromVienna. The first football club was founded in 1900 by the German minority inLjubljana, the Laibacher Sportverein.^[3] They were soon followed by the Hungarian minority inLendava (Nafta in 1903) and the German minority inCelje (Athletik SK in 1906).^[4] The game soon spread among Slovenian high school students, who formed their own teams in most of Slovenia's major cities, most notable beingHermes in Ljubljana and Jugoslavija inGorizia. In 1911, the first Slovenian citizens football club,Ilirija, was founded in Ljubljana, followed bySlovan two years later.^[4]

After the end ofWorld War I and the creation of theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed to Yugoslavia, theYugoslav Football Association was formed, which was divided in regional subassociations. Football clubs Ilirija, Slovan and German teams fromMaribor founded the Ljubljana Football Subassociation in 1920, which is the forerunner of today'sFootball Association of Slovenia. Ljubljana Subassociation covered the territory of Slovenia and was responsible for organizing the football activities within its territory. They formed the Slovenian national team, which played its first game againstFrance in 1921.^[5] At club level they formed a league system with several levels which started being played in 1920. The Ljubljana Subssociationfirst league champions played along the champions of the other Yugoslav subassociations in theYugoslav Championship. The most successful teams were Ilirija with twelve subassociation titles, followed byI. SSK Maribor with three titles, andPrimorje,SK Ljubljana andŽelezničar Maribor with two each.Stanko Tavčar was the first Slovenian footballer to play for theYugoslavia national team.^[6] Most of the competitions were suspended in 1941 due to outbreak ofWorld War II.

InSFR Yugoslavia, the majority of Slovenian clubs played in theYugoslav football league system, while the Slovenian national team continued playing as a regional amateur selection. The first post-war champions, Nafta, competed in the Yugoslav top division in the1946–47 season, an achievement that was later repeated only byOlimpija andMaribor. Olimpija was the most successful Slovenian team in the period; they played 22 seasons in the Yugoslav top flight, reached theYugoslav Cup final in 1970, and also competed in European competitions on three occasions. Most Slovenian clubs usually played in the third-tierSlovenian Republic League, where the most successful teams were Maribor andLjubljana with five titles each. During the 1945–1990 period, only a handful of Slovenian players managed to get into the Yugoslavia national team, withBranko Oblak,Srečko Katanec andDanilo Popivoda being the famous three.

After Slovenia's independence in 1991, national league and cup competitions were formed on the basis of the old republic structures, with the firstSlovenian PrvaLiga season therefore including 21 teams. In the same year,SR Slovenia regional selection reformed as theSlovenian national football team and played their first official match in 1992 againstEstonia.^[7]

• Football in Slovenia

• CS1 Slovenian-language sources (sl)
• CS1 Serbian-language sources (sr)
• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from February 2022
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