The European Championship Qualifying tournament is divided into six groups, of which the top two teams in each group and the top four third-place teams advance to next summer’s European championship.
The European Championships is played every other year, in which teams compete not only to be the champions of Europe, but for spots in the World Championships, or the Olympics, depending on the year.
With the European championships being the only way for a team to qualify for a chance to compete on the largest stage of global hoops, this qualifying tournament holds a great importance for all the teams involved. It should be noted that all European teams who competed in the Olympic games and the pre-Olympics qualifying tournament have automatically qualified for next summer’s European championship in Slovenia.