The Football League and its clubs are set to land a financial windfall of potentially more than £90million over the next three years following the announcement of a 'Solidarity' package agreed with the Premier League.

The new mechanism ensures that a proportion of the Premier League's increasingly vast turnover, which in the coming campaign should be in excess of £900m, is distributed down the professional football pyramid.

The extra funding structure, which this season will deliver a total of £31.8m of new money to Football League clubs, includes provision for youth development and community programmes, as well as the core business of clubs in each of The League's three divisions.

Welcoming the package Lord Mawhinney, Chairman of The Football League, said: "We have been in conversation for some time about this - the Premier League clubs did not have to do this and we are extremely appreciative.

"The financial gap between the Premier and Football Leagues is overwhelmingly because of the success of the Premier League. I salute them for that, and any generosity that takes account of the gap is welcome."

Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the Premier League, noted: "The package was unanimously voted for by the 20 Premier League clubs - the whole re-distribution package was very well received by them.

"I make no apologies for the success story that is the Premier League, but there is a responsibility that goes with that and we believe this measure both shows solidarity between us and The Football League and is a proportionate response to our success."

The £31.8m being awarded to Football League clubs, in the first year of the package, will be made up of £22.4m in solidarity payments to clubs, and further payments of £5.4m and £4m, ring-fenced for their youth development and community programmes.

Out of the solidarity monies each League 2 club will receive £68,987, with each League 1 club getting £103,480. For the first time at Championship level there will be a 'sliding scale' of payments, with 12 clubs each receiving £775,909, while eight of the clubs above will get payments ranging from £851,871 to £1,383,602 depending on where they finished in last season's table.

The four remaining clubs - Sheffield United, Charlton Athletic, Watford and West Bromwich Albion - will receive no solidarity benefits as each will have an £11.2m 'parachute payment' following their relegation from the Premiership (West Brom in 2006).

Lord Mawhinney said: "This element of incentivised payments in the Championship will I hope be an encouragement to clubs to be even more competitive and to provide even more value for money for fans in the future.

"There will also," announced the chairman, "be a competitive element in the community payments - about two-thirds of the money will be distributed across all clubs, but one third will be available for clubs to bid for new community projects."

Stressing the importance of the youth and community aspects of the deal, Lord Mawhinney said: "We are extremely focused on making sure the money will be used for the reasons it's been given - there will be transparency and accountability."

The new sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, adding his approval to the deal, said: "The Football League is one of the most watched and competitive of any in the world and the foundation on which the success of the Premier League depends.

"So it is right that some of the financial rewards from the Premier League's success are re-invested. I welcome this re-distribution and in particular the new funding for community and youth-player development."