Saints will reap further financial rewards if they reach Europe after UEFA announced increase in prize money for the Europa League

The European football governing body has moved to increase the financial rewards from playing in the Europa League by announcing prize money for the tournament will increase by 65 per cent.

A rise in television money for UEFA will also see prize money for the Champions League go up but the disparity with the Europa League will not be so great from 2015-18.

At the moment, clubs in the Champions League earn an average of four and half times as much as those playing in the Europa League, but in the future UEFA will fix the ratio at 3.3 to one. Solidarity payments to those clubs who fail to qualify for the group stages will also rise significantly.

The prize money for the winner of the Champions League final will rise from 10.5m euros (£7.6m) to 15million euros (£10.9m), and the winner of the competition could earn a maximum of 54.5m euros (£39.6m) in prize money plus TV cash from their share of the market pool.

The move comes following a new agreement with the European Clubs' Association (ECA), which is also to have two representatives co-opted onto UEFA's executive committee - one of whom is expected to be ECA president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said: ''UEFA is really pleased that the new distribution system not only provides for a substantial rise in monies received by clubs participating in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, but also strengthens UEFA's solidarity principle, namely ensuring an even more substantial increase in solidarity payments to clubs.

''In this way, the new system provides a better deal for everyone, especially those clubs which did not qualify to the group stage of either of the two UEFA club competitions.

''This is a perfect example of the proper implementation of the solidarity principle which forms an essential part of UEFA's key values.''