Dundee United to discover potential Europa League opponents

Dundee United will find out today who they could face in the Europa League when the draw for the first and second qualifying rounds is made at Uefa headquarters in Nyon.

The Tannadice club, who earned a European berth with a fourth-place finish in the SPL last season, enter the competition at the second qualifying stage on 14 and 21 July.

Seeding will ensure that Peter Houston's side will avoid Fulham, assuming the English Premier League club make it through from the first round.

With both draws taking place this afternoon, United may have to wait for the result of a fixture from the first qualifying stage to discover who their opponents will be.

Hearts go into the third qualifying round draw on 15 July, while Celtic will find who they will go up against in the play-off stages on 5 August.

Meanwhile, Hearts manager Jim Jefferies has challenged highly-rated midfielder Jason Holt to become a regular member of his first-team squad.

The playmaker made his debut as a late substitute in the final game of last season at Dundee United after being named as the Clydesdale Bank SPL Under-19 player of the season in a campaign that saw the Hearts youngsters finish runners-up to Celtic.

Holt scored seven goals for Darren Murray's side and was also on target for the Scotland Under-19s in last month's 3-2 defeat in Denmark.

Jefferies said: "Jason is a player that caught our eye when we first came in here and we took him to the pre-season training camp in Italy.

"It wasn't just a case of taking him for the sake of it, in all the training drills that he did he didn't look out of place.

"There are one or two others in the 19s and it's great that Jason is fulfilling a wee bit of what we see in him.

"Hopefully, he can get a lift from what he's done last season and we want him to keep working so he's putting pressure on trying to get a first-team place."