A total of 39 teams participated. Competition consisted of three stages: • A
Preliminary Round that consisted of six teams that competed in a round robin tournament that took place in
Reykjavík,
Iceland between 22 May and 26 May 1996. • A
Qualifying Round where the third, fourth and fifth teams from the Preliminary Round joined another thirteen teams. The sixteen teams where divided in four round robin groups of four teams each and each group competition took place in a different city. This stage was hosted by
Cyprus,
Ireland,
Romania and
Slovakia and took place between 23 May and 25 May 1997. • A
Semi-Final Round where the first and second teams from the Preliminary Round and from each of the four groups from the Qualifying Round joined another twenty teams. All thirty teams where then divided in five round robin groups of six teams each. This stage took place between 26 November 1997 and 27 February 1999 and competition consisted of home and away legs, taking place in each of the participating countries. The top two teams from each group plus the best four third-placed teams qualified for
EuroBasket 1999. ==Preliminary round==