23 teams (European national domestic league champions, plus the then current title holders), playing in a tournament system, played knock-out rounds on a home and away basis. The aggregate score of both games decided the winner.
The 8 teams qualified for the Quarterfinals were divided into two groups of four. Every team played against the other three in its group in consecutive home-and-away matches, so that every two of these games counted as a single win or defeat (point difference being a decisive factor there). In case of a tie between two or more teams after this group stage, the following criteria were used: 1) one-to-one games between the teams; 2) basket average; 3) individual wins and defeats.
The group winners and the runners-up of the Quarterfinal Group Stage qualified for the Semifinals. The final was played at a predetermined venue.
*Academic qualified for the next stage of the competition as the winner of this match-up, but the Bulgarian club later withdrew alleging that most of their international players has been summoned to play a series of Communist Bloc tournaments (the real reason was to prepare the Pre-Olympic Tournament though). Later, FIBA fined Akademik for this intentional withdrawal and invited Levi's Flamingo's to take their place in the Quarter finals group stage.