Athletes’ dropout from Slovak football – social impact of the sport determined via its geographical perspective

The article focuses on athletes' decision to leave organized football in Slovakia.It reveals the impact of this sport on society from a sports geography perspective, understood as the spatial distribution of football participation, accessibility of clubs and infrastructure, and regional disparities affecting athletes' retention, which is still underdeveloped in research.We aim to explore selected aspects to understand the current decrease in the young athletes' participation in the Slovak Football Association's (SFA) competitions.The quantitative methods applied to the data include logistic regression and correlation analysis, with the models being assessed by their accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.We used an exclusive data set provided directly by the SFA, as well as data extracted from the Sportnet API.This created a unique primary material for our research needs, complemented by official Sport in Figures reports (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021) as secondary data sources.We identified variables significantly influencing the likelihood of athletes staying in organized football (including the age of starting with football, basic line-up, and yellow cards).Based on the results, we defined recommendations for effective athletes' retention strategies so that the sport's social impact, quantified by its geographical dispersion, can be maximized.