Euro-basket

The championship was first held in 1935 and has been regularly awarded every two years since 1947. It also alternates between serving as a qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games and the FIBA World Championship. The most successful nation is the now defunct Soviet Union with fourteen titles, while Spain are the current champions.

24 European teams take part in the final competition. The qualification format that existed until Eurobasket 2011 permitted 16 teams to compete. Eight spots were determined by the host nation and the top seven finishers at the previous EuroBasket. The remaining Division A teams competed in the qualification tournament. There, they were divided into four groups. Each group played a double round-robin. The top team in each group qualified for EuroBasket. The best three of the four runners-up also qualified.
Of the ten teams that did not qualify in the qualification tournament, the six best got another chance in the additional qualifying round. The remaining four competed in a relegation round, with two being sent to Division B for the next qualification cycle (and replaced by the two best teams from Division B).
The final spot was determined by the additional qualifying round. The six teams were divided into two groups of three, with each group playing a double round-robin. The top team in each group played in the final against the other group's top team; the winner of that game received the final EuroBasket qualification spot.

EuroBasket has used a number of different formats, ranging from the simple round-robin used in 1939 to the three-stage tournament currently in use.
The current format begins with a preliminary round. The sixteen qualified teams are placed into four groups of four, and each group plays a round-robin tournament. The top three teams in each group (12 overall) advance to the qualifying round. The two groups of six in the qualifying round are each a combination of two preliminary round groups: Preliminary Groups A and B form Qualifying Group E, while Preliminary Groups C and D form Qualifying Group F. Results from the preliminary round carryover, and each team plays once against teams from the other Preliminary Group in its Qualifying Group.
The top four teams in each Qualifying Group advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament, with a bronze medal game for semifinal losers and classification games for the quarterfinal losers to determine fifth to eighth places.