1999 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships

The 1999 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships were held in Oslo, Hamar and Lillehammer in Norway from 1 to 16 May.

Qualifying Round
Three qualifying tournaments were played to establish the last five entrants to the World Championship. Two groups of four played in Europe, first and second place from each advanced, while the others were relegated to Group B. The winner of the "Far East" tournament advanced to the World Championship, while the losers played in Group C.

Group 1 (Austria)
Played 5–8 November 1998 in Klagenfurt. The USA and Austria advanced to the World Championship.

Group 2 (Slovenia)
Played 5–8 November 1998 in Ljubljana. The Ukraine and France advanced to the World Championship.

Far East (Japan)
Played 4–6 September 1998 in Tokyo. Japan advanced to the World Championship.

First Round
In each group, the top two nations advanced to the next round. Third place teams played a final round against each other to determine who escaped having to qualify for next year's tournament. Fourth place teams did not play further, they were automatically entered in qualifiers for next year's tournament.

Group 1
Italy was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Group 2
France was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Group 3
Japan was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Group 4
The Ukraine was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Final Round
Each playoff match up consisted of a two-game series. If tied, the two teams would play an overtime-style mini game (10 minutes in duration for the semi-finals and 20 minutes in the final) to determine the winner, and then a shoot-out if no scoring occurred. The only mini-game to go to a shoot-out was the Czech versus Canada tiebreaker, with a 4 to 3 Czech victory. Note that the mini-games show up as a game played in the players statistics. The exception was for the Bronze medal game which was just one game.

Consolation Round 9-12 Place
Latvia and Norway were relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Ranking and statistics
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Final standings
The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF: Places eleven through sixteen had to play in qualifying tournaments for entry into the 2000 tournament.

World Championship Group B
Played at Odense and Rodovre, Denmark April 8–17. The top three teams at the end of the tournament advanced to the qualifying round for the 2000 IIHF World Championship. The Germans, after failing to qualify for Group A, lost their final game to Kazakhstan and finished fourth. The twentieth place overall was by far the worst finish in their history.

Final Round 17-24 Place
''Denmark, Great Britain, and Kazakhstan all advanced to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship. Hungary was relegated to Group C.''

World Championship Group C
Played at Eindhoven and Tilburg, Netherlands April 5–11. Yugoslavia was supposed to participate in this tournament, but was prevented by the host Dutch government.

Final Round 25-28 Place
The Netherlands was promoted to Group B.

Final Round 29-32 Place
No team was relegated, with Yugoslavia resuming their place in 2000 the tournament was played with nine teams.
 * Because Yugoslavia was unable to participate for political reasons, the IIHF officially maintained their 30th place from the previous World Championship.

World Championship Group D
Played at Krugersdorp, South Africa April 14–20

Final Round 33-35 Place
Spain was promoted to Group C.