I'VE SEEN THE FUTURE, AND IT WORKS

For many years the big clubs have been massaging football's rules and regulations to suit themselves. The abolition of the maximum wage ended the glory days of Burnley, Blackpool and Bolton at a stroke, and the decision that clubs keep all their own gate money gave big city giants an even greater boost. Up to then there had been four league and cup doubles in a century, now there have been three in the last decade, won by two clubs who rarely won honours in the days of healthier competition.

The launch of the Premier League and the Bosman ruling have combined to further widen the gulf between rich and poor, and consequently the well-rounded figures of the butcher, baker and candlestick maker are being replaced in the boardrooms of Britain's top clubs by the Armani-clad banker, broker and pension fund manager. This new breed are unwilling and unable to grasp abstract concepts like the magic of the Cup and the dream embodied by the rise of Wimbledon. They see an industry comprising a few blue-chip companies and many more ramshackle operations like Wolves and Small Heath, who rely on the generosity of wealthy benefactors to survive.

It won't be long before the men in suits start to run the game as they would any other business by crushing as much competition as possible and hoping to attract customers from defunct former rivals. Don't be surprised if the next development is a reduction in the number of clubs relegated from the top flight. With nouveau-riche outfits like Blackburn, Middlesbrough and the soon to be refinanced Nottingham Forest in trouble, major shareholders will see that no-one is immune. When that painful truth dawns there may well be a call for a contraction in the size of the drop zone, and who would vote against it?

For the maiority of Premiership clubs, that would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

The squeeze on lower league finances would then become a stranglehold and the only way to ensure survival would be conversion to part-time or nursery club status. Right or wrong, this is the vision of new powerbrokers like Sir John Hall, who believes the game should be run for the benefit of an ever-shrinking elite.

Like Paul Welter, I don't care about morals; the only thing that concerns me is Aston Villa and their place in this brave new world. You're probably sick of reading it, and I sincerely wish I didn't feel the need to write about it, but yet again the extent of Villa's ambition is being called into question.

Recently we have heard about Manchester United's huge stock market valuation, Liverpool's £8 million youth development scheme and Newcastle's plans to build a 55,000 seater stadium whilst converting St James's Park into an indoor sports complex. Even Nationwide no-hopers Manchester City are considering a move to the 60,000 capacity arena being built to house the Commonwealth Games. These proposals certainly put Villa's £4 million worth of restaurants and executive boxes into perspective.

As I predicted in issue 41 of H&V, the time is coming when every major city will boast such ventures, and although we attract crowds only significantly bettered by Manchester United, any suggestion that Villa substantially increase capacity is dismissed as a pipe-dream

Many people seem happy to settle for our status as the "only Premier club in town" but it's time our supporters, and more importantly our directors, left such petty local rivalry to Albion, Wolves and Small Heath. We should be aiming to win over the new football converts who want to support a team of famous players winning games in front of big crowds. They don't give a damn whether they live within a hundred miles of the ground and have absolutely no idea what an Albion player looks like. They do not deride Steve Claridge, because his former club means nothing to them. They are the pay-per-view audience of tomorrow, and it we're not careful they will all be paying to view teams named United.

But we do win games, we are watched by big crowds and we have got famous players. For unlikely reasons Bosnich and Southgate are amongst the best-known footballers in the land and, like Yorke and Ugo, we were lucky to acquire them for incredibly low prices. Let's face it, if they were playing for other clubs we would not be in the market to sign them. We must not waste our good fortune and allow them to become disillusioned by an inability to compete with the many clubs whose teams they could walk into.

We attract full houses against teams like Leeds and Middlesbrough, so it's reasonable to suggest that upwards of 50,000 would pay to see us take on the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United. While I welcome moves to cash in on corporate expense accounts, I hope that the chairman keeps his PROMISE, made on an XTRA-AM forum, to raise capacity to 47,000 by the beginning of 1997-98. If we could then continue to sell-out consistently, who knows that the next step will be?

The next five years in football will be revolutionary, and the North Stand powers that be must do all they can to ensure Villa come out of it on top, even if all they can do is (a) step aside and allow someone with greater resources to take over, or (b) become more pro-active in encouraging investment in the club.

Rumours of our flotation raise hopes that the chairman has at last woken up to the fact that Villa's huge potential cannot be realised without some serious investment. If any would-be backers happen to be reading this, here are some facts and figures that hint at this potential:

We are the only self-financing big club between Liverpool and Manchester. Ordinary shares in the club have risen in value by over 2000% in three years. We are completely debt-free. Some of our players are household names and the rest soon will be. The average age of this extremely talented squad is 24. Eleven are full internationals. numerous others have been capped at under-21 and youth levels. We once had a crowd of 23,000 to watch the reserves. We hold the attendance record, 68,029, for division two. We had six crowds of over 40,000 in division three, including one of 62,500 and another of 54,000 - for a friendly. Only one club has ever had a higher gate in the Premiership. After failing to win for eight games recently, our ground was completely sold out... against Leeds.

We have won the league and FA Cup once each in the past 75 years. What would our crowds be like if we had some glory to hunt?

With the backing of city money and the genius of Brian Little we can become giants in English football, which in the current climate of a booming domestic game easily translates into giants of Europe. Walsall will be our nursery club (they can complain, but it's as inevitable as pay-per-view), Wolves and West Brom consigned to the history books. Spare a thought for Small Heath though, who won't even be in the history books,

Stephen Pennell