Sport in Slovakia
| Football | |
|---|---|
| Country | Slovakia |
| Governing body | Slovak Football Association |
| National team | Slovakia |
| First played | 1898 |
| Registered players | 428,968 (2010) |
| Clubs | 2,432 (2010) |
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National competitions
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Club competitions
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International competitions
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| Ice hockey | |
|---|---|
| Country | Slovakia |
| Governing body | Slovak Ice Hockey Federation |
| National team | Slovakia |
| First played | 1920s |
| Registered players | 8,280 |
| Clubs | 820 |
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National competitions
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International competitions
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Sport in Slovakia is influenced by its climate and geography; popular summer sports include football, tennis, volleyball, swimming, cycling and hiking, popular winter sports include skiing and snowboarding. The most watched sports in Slovakia are football, ice hockey and tennis. The country features a typical post-Eastern Bloc system, where sport is being financed primarily from the state budget. In 2012, the state will pay 30,402,634 euro to over 7,500 different sporting clubs.
Internationally, the most successful sport in Slovakia is ice hockey where currently, as of 2012, the country is ranked as the eighth best team in the world by the IIHF World Ranking.
Until revolution in 1989, the sport sector was highly centralized, oriented on a unified, nationwide programme of sports. In 1990 the Act No.173/1990 was adopted by the Federal Assembly of Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, which replaced the Act No. 68/1956 on Organisation Physical Education. Also in 1990, the National Council of the Slovak Republic approved the Act on Physical Culture No. 198/1990.
In 1997 the new Slovak National Council Act No. 288/1997 on Physical Culture was approved, which also included articles on educational and commercial activities in sport. By passing the Act on State Funding of Physical Culture No. 264/1993 the Slovak National Council approved financing of sport through lottery funds in 1993.
In 2011, there were over 13,000 sporting clubs and 661,346 registered sportsmen in the country. The most successful sporting club is Vojenské športové centrum DUKLA Banská Bystrica with 31 different medals in the year 2011.
For more information see Slovakia national football team.
Association football is the most popular sport in Slovakia, with over 400 thousand registered players. Since 1993, Slovak national football team has qualified only once to the FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship, in 2010, in which they proceeded into Play-offs, where they were defeated by Netherlands. The most notable result was the 3–2 victory over Italy.
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