The tournament is played on a knockout format, with 32 teams participating.
Initially 24 teams play a qualification round with the 12 winners advancing to the main phase.
After two legs, the team with the most result points advances to the next round.
The Golden Set winner is the team that first obtains 15 points, provided that the points difference between the two teams is at least 2 points (thus, the Golden Set is similar to a tiebreak set in a normal match).
[1][2] The number of participants on the basis of ranking list for European Cup Competitions: