Greece Sports
Greece has a long tradition in sports with several important achievements. The Greek national football team were the reigning UEFA European Champions for the period 2004-2008, having won the UEFA Euro 2004 as underdogs. They are as of April 2008 ranked 8th in the world, and qualified for the UEFA Euro 2008 to defend their crown. The Greek Super League is the highest professional football league in the country comprising of 16 teams. The most known and successful football clubs are Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, which compete in the Super League Greece. The men’s Greek national basketball team has a decades-long tradition of excellence in the sport. Greece is generally considered an important power in international basketball and the national team is regarded as one of the best in the world. They are as of January 2008 ranked 6th in the world. They have won the European Championship twice in 1987 and 2005, and have reached the final four in three of the last four FIBA World Championships in 1994, 1998 and 2006, taking the second place in 2006. The domestic top basketball league, A1 Ethniki, is composed of fourteen teams. The most successful Greek teams are Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, who both have won the Euroleague, while Aris, AEK Athens and PAOK have also won European trophies.
Cricket, handball, water polo and volleyball are also practiced in Greece with the first being particularly popular in Corfu due to its long connections with the British.
As the birth place of the Olympic Games, Greece was most recently host of 2004 Summer Olympics and the first modern Olympics in 1896.
