THE Dons today welcomed the news Scottish clubs have received extra cash incentives to qualify for Europe.

UEFA have increased the prize money available to clubs in the Champions League and Europa League.

It means those who qualify for either competition will have the opportunity to take in more revenue than ever before.

Dons chief executive Duncan Fraser, praised the European Club Association (ECA), who recommended the changes be made to ensure a fairer distribution of cash to all clubs who qualify for Europe.

The ECA were formed in 2008.

Chaired by German Football legend Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, they represent 214 clubs across 53 UEFA associations, including Aberdeen.

The Dons were granted associate membership in September 2010.

“The ECA board are to be congratulated for ensuring all clubs across European football have a chance to benefit from this,” said Fraser, who has just returned from Stockholm, Sweden, where the changes were announced after the ECA’s general assembly.

The redistribution means the European club competitions’ income will rise from approximately 1.7 billion euros in 2012 to 2015 to 2.2bn in 2015-18.

Every team playing in the Europa League qualifiers will receive an additional 80,000 euros a round.

Those in the group stage will get close to 85% more than before.

Smaller nations, such as Scotland, will also receive more solidarity payments into their national league bodies from 2016/17 onwards.

Celtic earned 12.6m from reaching the group stages and winning one of their games in the 2013-14 Champions League.

If they were to do as well under the new system in place they would earn at least 16m before ticket sales are taken into account.

The Dons are still chasing Celtic for the title this season and also looking good to make the Europa League qualifiers if they finish second or third in the Premiership.

The Dons reached the third qualifying round this season before they were eliminated by Spanish side Real Sociedad.

Were they to get that far again under the new format they would receive around 300,000.

That is before any extra revenue that might be gained from broadcasting rights if the tie is an attractive enough one.

Clubs who go out in earlier rounds will also receive increased payments.

If a Scottish club were to lose their first qualifying tie, as has happened frequently in recent seasons, they would still receive 150,000.

That will help meet the costs of competing in the early rounds, which tend not to attract bumper crowds.