Greece Greece is a country in southeastern Europe at the southern end of the Balkan peninsula . It has a population of over 11 , 000 , 000 and capital is Athens . The junior national team of Greece was formed in 1990 and played its first international competition in the World Junior Championships held in Yugoslavia . They lost their first game 33 – 1 against Yugoslavia on December 27 , 1990 . They continued their losing streak with a 22 – 1 loss to Bulgaria . Throughout the rest of 1990 and 1991 , the Greeks lost five more games including a 22 – 0 shutout against Great Britain by a combined score of 93 – 2 . In 1991 , they also participated in the World Junior Championship . During their first two years of international competition , Greece was outscored by a score of 148 – 5 . Despite being outscored by 143 goals the past two years Greece suffered their worst defeat in 1992 against Latvia losing 47 – 1 . The 46 goal difference was the largest in their history . Greece went on to be outscored 85 – 3 in their final three games of the year . Following the Greek national team ' s bronze medal at the World Championships in 1992 , the sport suffered a decline in support from the people of Greece . Despite this , the junior team ended up winning one game and losing four at European Championships . As of 2010 , there are currently 76 players playing junior hockey in Greece . In IIHF competitions , Greece has a current record of 0 – 11 – 0 . Ice Hockey started in Greece in 1984 by players that returned to Greece from abroad . The first official Greek Championship was held in 1989 in the Peace and Friendship Stadium with five teams taking place . It was the first time hockey games were held in a normal size rink . In 1990 the first Junior National Team was formed and took part in the World Junior Championship Pool C , held in Yugoslavia . In 1991 the Junior National Team took part in the World Junior Championship , held in Italy . In 1992 the first ever Men ' s Greek National Team was formed and took place in the World Championships Pool C held in South Africa . With only two weeks of serious training abroad and the support of the Greeks of South Africa , the National Team won the Bronze medal , placing them 21st overall . It was extraordinary for a team to win a medal in their first appearance at the World Championships . Despite the great achievement , the start of the decline of the sport came in 1993 . Economic help was discontinued by the Greek Undersecretary of State for Sports and all expenses to keep ice hockey alive were passed over to the players . Practices stopped and many players quit . Since May 2003 the last ice rink in Greece closed and the national team was left without an ice rink . In the next 4 years , players of the national team traveled at their own expense in the Czech Republic in order to train themselves . Ice hockey was slowly dying until Dimitris Kalyvas , the Captain of the Greek National Ice Hockey Team tried to convince the International Ice Hockey Federation ( IIHF ) that the National Team is still active and that development of the sport is continuing in Greece despite not having a rink . He later got the support of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation . After many emails , the IIHF decided to send 2 delegates to Athens to investigate . After a review done by the IIHF in 2008 , Greece retained its status within the IIHF , and took part in a qualification tournament against Armenia and Bosnia - Herzegovina in Sarajevo prior to the 2008 Division III championship in Luxembourg . They defeated both teams , beating Armenia 8 - 5 ( although Armenia was forced to Forfeit each game 5 - 0 ) , and Bosnia - Herzegovina 10 - 1 . League . Greek Championship