http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2012.html has the country coefficients. For 2011-2012, Spain and Italy are tied for first before any games are played with 1.714 which is 3 clubs x 4 points for reaching the Champions League Group Stage/7 clubs. England has 1.500 because they have 8 clubs competing. If the 4 points were given to clubs who reached the Champions League Group Stage from the qualifying rounds but not the clubs that started in the Group Stage, it would hurt the best leagues, but as it is if you multiply Spain and Italy's guaranteed 1.714 by 5 you get 8.570 for 5 years which is better than 22 countries have.
The points are given to even out the advantage clubs have that play in the Europa league in contrast to clubs playing CL, because it is much easier to collect points in EL than in CL plus in the EL you have one additional round, so IMHO the bonus points are deserved.
Doesn't bother me at all - the teams that qualify for the Champions League get the same points, just later. I would rather see the Champions League drop outs (from the group stage, not the qualifying rounds) not accumulate any points from the Europa league.
I don't have a problem. These teams belong in the CL and would get there even if they had to qualify. At least, this way they do not get points in qualifying...
That brings up something I want to look at which is the correlation between points earned in qualifying rounds and points earned in the Group Stage and later for the Champions League clubs. I would expect a negative correlation because the elite clubs start in the Group Stage.
I don't have a problem with that either. Qualifying results are a decent way to rank UEFA leagues outside the top 10. In fact the lion's share of European matches for clubs in these leagues occur in the qualifying stages.
