Exercise 3.2 - Solution

The Big Five are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. They go straight to the final, together with the host country, because their broadcasters contribute the largest share of the contest's funding (partly because they have the largest television audiences).

For: the funding justifies a guaranteed place. Against: it gives the largest countries an advantage and removes a risk of failure that other countries face. (Any reasonable pair is acceptable.)