SAINTS have a second cash cow to heartily milk after qualifying for the group stages of the Europa League.

Not only will the club benefit in 2016/17 from the increase in revenue bestowed upon Premier League clubs - thanks to the new £5.136bn television deal - they will now rake in even more eye-watering sums via the Europa League.

Saints will take their cut of a £295m pot of money that will be dished out by UEFA - including around £4m if they reach the knockout stages and almost £12m if they can win the tournament.

It means that the rivers of cash flowing into St Mary’s will soon become a vast torrent, which many supporters will hope can be converted into transfer funds for Ronald Koeman to add further quality to the team.

With the introduction of the league’s TV deal, the average amount each top-flight club will receive per club, per season is set to rocket next season.

But Saints will have another cash cow to heartily milk.

Qualifying for the Europa League group stages alone will see Saints pocket more than £1.85m - the amount each of the 48 clubs are automatically distributed when entering that point of the competition.

If Saints win their group they will bag almost £390,000 and a maximum of around £1.7m in win bonuses, according the numbers provided by UEFA for last season’s competition.

Reaching the knockout stages will see Saints bring in a maximum of £4m when all bonuses are added together.

A glorious run to the final to lift the cup can see Saints bag a maximum of £11.6m - and that’s even before the £118m television money is dished out.

In all, UEFA hand out more than £177m worth of performance related payments and then a further £118m, which is distributed according to proportional value of the domestic TV market from where the club is from.

Clubs from England, Spain and Germany will take a larger cut than those from smaller leagues with smaller TV deals.

Daily Echo:

Europa League fixed amounts:

  • Group stage fee: £1.85m
  • Group stage performance: £280,000 win / £93,000 draw
  • KO qualification bonus: £390,000 winners/£194,000 runners-up
  • Round of 32: £390,000
  • Round of 16: £581,000
  • Quarter-finals: £774,524
  • Semi-finals: £1.17m
  • Final winners: £5m Runners-up: £2.7m