IIHF World Championship Division III

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See also: Ice Hockey World Championships
IIHF World Championship Division III
Upcoming season or competition:
Current sports event 2022 IIHF World Championship Division III
SportIce hockey
Founded1987 (Pool D)
2002 (Div II Qualification)
2003 (Division III)
No. of teams12
Most recent
champion(s)		 Bulgaria
Most titles North Korea (4)
Promotion toDivision II
Relegation toDivision IV
Official websiteIIHF.com

The IIHF World Championship Division III are an annual sports event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was the lowest level of the IIHF World Championships until the formation of Division IV for 2020.

Organization[]

When the IIHF reorganized its World Championships hierarchy in 2001, which included replacing "pools" with "divisions", nations outside of the top 40 were placed in Division II Qualification, trying to qualify for participation in the following year's Division II championship. This qualifier was not deemed a championship tournament by the IIHF, but was simply used to determine the teams that would replace the two teams relegated out of the Division II championship. The bottom two nations from the 2000 Pool D championship, Luxembourg and Turkey, had been relegated and were slated to compete in the 2001 Division II Qualification, against other nations attempting to reach the 2002 Division II championship. When no other nations submitted their names to enter the 2001 qualifier, there was no need for Luxembourg and Turkey to meet, and both were promoted to Division II for 2002. Three teams met in the last, 2002, Division II Qualification.

In 2003, the Division II Qualification was officially replaced by the Division III Championship, with the winner of the tournament now being declared a champion, and the top two finishers still earning promotion to the following year's Division II Championship, to be replaced in Division III by the two teams relegated down from Division II.

In 2011, the IIHF allowed eight teams, rather than the previous year's six, to compete. The teams were divided into two groups, with the winner of each group declared co-champion and promoted to the following year's Division II tournament. While Division III returned to a six team competition in 2012, reorganization of the Division II system meant that only the champion of Division III was promoted, replacing the single team from Division II Group B that was relegated.

In 2013, the IIHF again had eight teams interested in contesting the Division III Championship. The decision was made to hold a four team qualifier, with the bottom two teams from 2012 plus two new invitees, to determine two teams to qualify for that year's Division III Championship. As with the earlier Division II Qualifications, the 2013 Division III Qualification was not a championship. The Division III Championship did not have this preliminary qualifier after the 2013 event.

In 2018, the IIHF reintroduced the Division III Qualification, but used it to determine a single team that would be invited to compete in the following year's Division III Championship, replacing the team relegated out of Division III – a variation from the 2013 Division III Qualification. This process was repeated in 2019.

Results[]

From 2003 until 2011, the Division III champion and the second-place finisher were promoted to Division II, replacing the two teams from Division II that were relegated to the Division III. From 2012 until 2017, only the Division III champion was promoted, to Division II Group B. From 2003 to 2010, and again from 2012 to 2016, no teams were relegated from Division III; the 2012 exception, noted above, was the IIHF holding a four team qualifier with the previous year's bottom two teams and two new invitees. By 2017, the demand from teams wishing to compete had grown to the point where the bottom team of 2017 was relegated to the newly introduced 2018 Division III Qualification, where the top qualifier earned a spot in the following year's Division III championship. The Division III Qualification was expanded in 2019, and interest had grown enough that a new Division IV Championship, rather than qualifiers, was added for 2020. In addition, the Division III Championship will be expanded to two groups for 2020.

Year Promoted
Champion 2nd Place
2003  New Zealand  Luxembourg
2004  Iceland  Turkey
2005  Mexico  South Africa
2006  Iceland  Turkey
2007  New Zealand  Ireland
2008  North Korea  South Africa
2009  New Zealand  Turkey
2010  North Korea  Ireland
2011  Israel  South Africa
Year Champion and Promoted
2012  Turkey
2013  South Africa
2014  Bulgaria
2015  North Korea
2016  Turkey
2017  Luxembourg
Year Promoted Relegated
To Division II B To Division III To Division III Qualification
2018  Georgia (Division III)  Turkmenistan (Division III Qualification)  Hong Kong
2019  Bulgaria  United Arab Emirates (Division III Qualification)  South Africa
2020 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
2021 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pool D[]

Champions (1987–2000)[]

Year National team
1987  Australia
1989  Belgium
1990  Great Britain
1992^  Spain
1994^  Estonia
1995^  Croatia
1996  Lithuania
1997  Croatia
1998  Bulgaria
1999  Spain
2000  Israel

^ – In 1992, 1994, and 1995, there was no Pool D. However, Pool C was divided in two tiers where the winner of 'C2' was promoted to 'C1', essentially making C2 the same as D. Accordingly, the winners (Spain, Estonia and Croatia) are listed here.

Summary of participation[]

29 championships

  • In 2010, the two four-team tournaments were played, this charts ranks them together assigning gold silver and bronze to the nations who ranked 41st, 42nd, and 43rd overall.
  • The Division III teams (2019) are ranked one to twelve, with this chart assessing gold, silver, and bronze to the nations who ranked 41st, 42nd, and 43rd overall.
Team Times First Last Gold Silver Bronze Total Best finish (first/last) Hosted
 Armenia 4 2004 2010 0 0 1 1 3rd (2006) 1
 Australia 9 1987 2000 1 2 2 5 1st (1987) 1
 Belgium 9 1989 2000 1 1 0 2 1st (1989) 1
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 5 2008 2019 0 0 0 0 5th (2016) 2
 Bulgaria 6 1996 2019 3 2 0 5 1st (1998/2019) 2
 Chinese Taipei[N1] 3 2017 2019 0 0 0 0 4th (2018) 0
 Croatia 3 1994 1997 2 0 0 2 1st (1995/1997) 0
 Estonia 1 1994 1 0 0 1 1st (1994) 0
 Georgia 5 2013 2018 1 0 1 2 1st (2018) 0
 Great Britain 2 1989 1990 1 0 1 2 1st (1990) 1
 Greece 10 1992 2013 0 0 2 2 3rd (1992/2010) 0
 Hong Kong 7 1987 2019 0 0 0 0 4th (1987/2017) 0
 Iceland 4 1999 2006 2 0 0 0 1st (2004/2006) 3
 Ireland 8 2004 2013 1 1 0 2 1st (2010) 1
 Israel 9 1992 2011 2 1 1 4 1st (2000/2011) 0
 Kuwait 2 2018 2019 0 0 0 0 10th (2018) 0
 Kyrgyzstan 1 2019 0 0 0 0 12th (2019) 0
 Lithuania 2 1995 1996 1 1 0 2 1st (1996) 1
 Luxembourg 17 1992 2019 1 1 8 10 1st (2017) 2
 Mexico 4 2000 2005 1 1 1 3 1st (2005) 3
 Mongolia 5 2007 2013 0 0 0 0 5th (2007) 0
 New Zealand 10 1987 2009 3 0 2 5 1st (2003/2009) 2
 North Korea 7 2002 2015 4 3 0 7 1st (2002/2015) 0
 Romania 1 1989 0 1 0 1 2nd (1989) 0
 Serbia and Montenegro[N2] 2 1996 1997 0 1 0 1 2nd (1996) 0
 South Africa 16 1992 2019 1 4 1 6 1st (2013) 6
 South Korea 5 1987 1997 0 2 1 3 2nd (1987/1997) 0
 Spain 8 1989 1999 2 1 4 7 1st (1992/1999) 1[N3]
 Thailand 1 2019 0 0 0 0 8th (2019) 0
 Turkey 15 1992 2019 2 5 3 10 1st (2012/2016) 2
 Turkmenistan 2 2018 2019 0 0 1 1 3rd (2019) 0
 United Arab Emirates 7 2010 2019 0 0 0 0 5th (2014) 1
  • ^ Note 1. Commonly known as Taiwan.
  • ^ Note 2. Known then as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
  • ^ Note 3. Andorra also hosted one tournament.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Steiss, Adam. "2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship cancelled". iihf.com. IIHF. Retrieved 21 March 2020.

External links[]

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