2000 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships

42 teams representing their countries participated in several levels of competition.

This was the final year of the qualifying tournaments (except for the "Far East"), so it was a simple matter of the winner being promoted.

In 1999 Group C was disrupted because of political issues surrounding Kosovo.

The upcoming realignment meant that seven of the nine teams moved up to "Division II" for 2001.

There was no third team to play against so they both simply skipped a year and joined Division II in 2002