The 2000 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships were the 64th such event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. 42 teams representing their countries participated in several levels of competition. The competition also served as qualifications for division placements in the 2001 competition.
Played April 12–21 in Katowice and Kraków. 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. This was also the final year of the traditional eight team tournament. Beginning in 2001 Group B would be renamed 'Division I' and consist of two six team divisions.
Played March 20–26 in Beijing. In 1999 Group C was disrupted because of political issues surrounding Kosovo.[1] The IIHF chose to have no team relegated and have Yugoslavia retain their position, the result was a nine team tournament this year. With the forthcoming realignment, four nations had the opportunity to be promoted to Division I, the remaining five would participate in next year's Division II.[2]
Both Luxembourg and Turkey had to stay behind in what was initially called Division II Qualification (later renamed Division III). There was no third team to play against so they both simply skipped a year and joined Division II in 2002
