Slovenian First League of Handball
Current season, competition or edition: 2017–18 season
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| Countries |
 Slovenia
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|---|---|
| Confederation | EHF |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Number of teams | 12 |
| Relegation to | Slovenian Second League |
| Level on pyramid | Level 1 |
| Domestic cup(s) | Slovenian Handball Cup |
| International cup(s) |
Champions League EHF Cup |
| Current champions | Celje (2016–17) |
| Most championships | Celje (21 titles) |
| Website | Official website |
The Slovenian First League of Handball (Slovene: 1. A Državna Rokometna Liga), currently named Liga NLB due to sponsorship reasons, is the top team handball league in Slovenia. It is organized by the Handball Federation of Slovenia (Rokometna Zveza Slovenije). The league comprises 12 teams.
The Handball Federation of Slovenia was formed on 11 December 1949 under the former Handball federation of Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, the Slovenian clubs played in the Yugoslavian Handball Championship in I. and II. league, the interrepublic and the republic leagues. Slovan, Celje and Rudar Trbovlje were the only Slovenian teams that played in the Yugoslav First League. In the 1991–92 season, just after the Slovenian independence, the Handball Federarion of Slovenia was accepted to the European Handball Federation and the International Handball Federation and the first season in Europe for the Slovenian teams was played in the 1992–93 season.
Since 1991, the league has been named after sponsors on several occasions, giving it the following names:
The league is conducted in two phases. In the first phase, 10 teams compete in a home-and-away round-robin series (18 games total) with the country's representative in the SEHA League, currently Celje and Gorenje, being exempt from this stage. All teams advance from the regular season to one of two postseason stages, depending on their league position. The top four teams from the regular season are joined by the SEHA League representatives in the second phase. These two teams start the second phase with the same number of points as the regular season winner. Each team plays a total of 10 games in this phase; as in the regular season, a home-and-away round-robin is used. The bottom six teams play a home-and-away round-robin series with one another; these teams' results from the regular season carry over to the second phase. At the end of the season, the bottom two finishers are automatically relegated to the second level of the Slovenian league system, the 1. B DRL.
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