Until last season, there had been 32 member clubs in the association, divided into two tiers of 16 teams each.
In the first stage, the qualification phase, each team in each group played a double round-robin to decide their table positions.
The top eight teams from the qualification phase of the NLA would advance to the championship group.
The top eight teams from the NLA qualification competed a double round-robin in the championship group to decide championship and over the qualification slots to next season's UEFA European competitions.
The top two teams in each of these groups would play the following season in the NLA, the others would contest in the NLB.
The qualification stage of the NLA began on 8 August 1987 and was completed on 13 December.
The teams took half of the points (rounded up to complete units) gained in the qualification as bonus with them.