Spain Spain is a country of over 46 , 000 , 000 people in southwestern Europe . It lies south of France and east of Portugal . Ice hockey became to Spain in the early 1900 ' s , when a series of exhibition games , featuring Canadian and British players , were played . Four clubs created a hockey association in the early 1920 ' s On March 10 , 1923 , Spain joined the IIHF after the Spanish Winter Sports Federation was founded in the same year . After building an artificial rink in Madrid , Spain , they entered their first international tournament in late 1923 . Spain won their first international game against Belgium in the Challenge de Haute – Garonne tournament held in Bagnères - de - Luchon , France . They lost their next game in the tournament to France . In 1924 , Spain competed in the Ice Hockey European Championships held in Milan , Italy . During their first game against Switzerland , two of Spain ' s seven players were injured . Due to this , Switzerland agreed to play with only five players allowing the game to continue . Switzerland ended up winning 12 – 0 . Spain was forced to forfeit their second game against Sweden due to the injuries suffered by their players . Sweden had also agreed to play with five players . After the European Championships , Spain entered the Coupe de Davos in Davos , Switzerland . Days before the tournament , Spain had upset Switzerland 4 – 0 . The tournament had 12 teams broken into four groups with Spain being placed in group two along with Switzerland and Germany . Spain lost to Switzerland , 6 – 0 and to Germany , 7 – 0 . Spain also lost to Germany ' s second team , 2 – 0 but avoided being in last place by beating Italy , 4 – 0 . On January 1 , 1925 , Spain played Germany ' s second team again , winning in double overtime 3 – 1 . After beating Germany , Spain went on a Swiss tour winning three of the games they played . Spain played in the Challenge de Haute – Garonne for the second time in January 1925 . During the tournament , they defeated Belgium ' s second team 4 – 1 and tied France 3 – 3 . In 1926 , Spain again competed in the European Championships held in Davos , Switzerland . In their first game against Belgium , Spain lost 5 – 0 . They also lost their second game to Czechoslovakia ( 9 - 2 ) . In the consolation pool , Spain tied Italy 2 – 2 and lost to Poland , 4 – 1 . Spain has competed in the IIHF World Championship Division II since it began in 2001 . During the first year of the tournament in 2001 , Spain defeated South Africa , Iceland , Australia and New Zealand . However they lost to South Korea preventing Spain from finishing in first . In 2002 , Spain finished in third place in Group B after defeating Bulgaria , Iceland and Luxembourg and losing to Yugoslavia and Lithuania . During the 2003 version of the tournament , Spain defeated South Africa , Mexico and Australia and lost to Yugoslavia and South Korea . Spain finished in third place in Group A . Spain hosted the Division II tournament in 2004 and finished fourth place in Group A by defeating Israel and Luxembourg . Spain lost to China , Croatia and Australia . 2005 was a down year for Spain as they finished in fifth place in Group B with only two points . Spain ' s only win came against Iceland while they lost to Serbia and Montenegro , Belgium , Israel and North Korea . In 2006 , they lost to Serbia and Montenegro , Romania men ' s national ice hockey team and twice to Bulgaria while beating South Africa for their lone win . They finished in fifth place in Group A for the second straight year . In 2007 they defeated Bulgaria , Turkey and Serbia and lost to Belgium and Croatia . Unlike the prior two years Spain finished in third place with nine points . In 2008 , Spain finished in third place by defeating Australia , Iceland and Mexico and lost to China and New Zealand . Spain won three games and lost two in 2009 , their three wins came against Mexico , Bulgaria and South Africa while they lost to South Korea and Belgium . Spain finished in third place with nine points . Spain was ranked 34th in the IIHF World Rankings in 2009 . In 2010 , Spain rose in the rankings to 30th and competed in Division II of the 2010 IIHF World Championship . They finished first in their group at the tournament and hence got promoted to Division I for the first time in their history . Leagues . Superliga Espanola de Hockey Hielo Spanish League Division 2