It involved 24 teams competing for eight quarter-final berths; the quarter-finalists will then participate in a knockout tournament that will ultimately end with the final on 21 May 2011 at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The third- through fifth-best runners-up parachuted into the knockout stage of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

The 24 competing teams are ranked based on past Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup performance, with each pool receiving one team from each quartile, or Tier.

[3] The brackets show each team's European Rugby Club Ranking at the end of the 2009–10 season.

Aironi inherited the ranking of Viadana, the principal shareholders in the new Magners League team.