The 16 teams participating in this European Cup are divided into 4 groups with 4 teams in each group. Among them, the hosts Poland and Ukraine automatically became the seed teams in Group A and Group D, while South Africa's world champions and runners-up Spain and the Netherlands ranked in the top two in the European Cup points system, so they occupied the other two seed team seats. The remaining 12 teams are divided into three grades according to their respective rankings in the integral system, and teams of the same grade will not be assigned to the same group.