Season 2016–17 Goals scored 1161 (3.46 per match) | Matches played 336 Average attendance 174 | |
 | ||
Total attendance 58,498 (in all leagues) | ||
The league(s) began on 20 August 2016 and will end on 27 May 2017.
Competition format and rules
The Slovenian Third League (3. SNL), is divided into four regional groups with a total of 52 participating clubs. Three groups (i.e. North, Centre, East) are composed of 14 clubs, while the West group has only 10 clubs participating in the competition.
On June 29, 2016 NZS decided to expand Slovenian Second League in 2017–18 season from 10 teams to 16 teams, meaning that in 2016–17 season of Slovenian Third League top two teams from each group will get promoted to the Second League. In the following seasons only group winners will get promoted.
Also, unlike previous seasons, reserve teams are now able to promote to Second League.
The number of relegated teams from each group is determined by the number of regional MNZ's from which the clubs in all four groups are a part of. There are nine MNZ's governing bodies in Slovenian football:
This means that three teams from 3. SNL North are relegated at the end of the season and replaced by the winners of the fourth tier competitions held separately in MNZ Celje, MNZ Maribor and MNZ Ptuj. The number of relegated teams from 3. SNL Centre and 3. SNL East is two, while only the bottom team relegates from 3. SNL West as MNZ Koper and MNZ Nova Gorica manage a combined fourth tier competition.
The number of relegated teams is also influenced by the location of teams which relegate from the second division. Each of the bottom placed second division teams can only relegate to the one 3. SNL group that is managed by the MNZ they are a part of.