The tournament was played in two different stages (first and final rounds). In the First round, the 17 participants were divided in five groups (two groups of four teams and three groups of three teams). A single round-robin format was played within each group to determine the teams group position, all teams progressed to the next round.
In the Final round, two groups were created (1st-10th and 11th-17th), teams were allocated to a group according to their First round group position (best two teams of each group going to 1st-10th and the remaining teams to 11th-17th). A single round-robin format was played within each group with matches already played between teams in the First round also counted in this round.[1]
The results and the points of the matches between the same teams that were already played during the first round are taken into account for the final round.