PONTYPOOL backer Bob Jude is bidding for £300,000 he claims he is due from the Welsh Rugby Union.

And the flooring company businessman, pictured, has hit out at the way the WRU have moved the goalposts when he had ploughed his own money into the club to get them into the Welsh Premier League.

Action against the WRU for the missing money is already being pursued through Jude's solicitors acting for Pontypool Premier Rugby Club Ltd, the business Jude set-up to run the organisation.

However, PPRC Ltd also face legal action for unpaid debts on two fronts, with one involving a sportswear firm which says it is owed £3,500 from PPRC Ltd.

That hearing is due to go ahead at the High Court on July 1. A further county court judgment has been issued against PPRC Ltd for £15,592.

Pontypool players and staff have called on the backer to quit or they will leave the club, and fundraising events have already taken place to help pay for operations to three players.

Some say they have not been paid for months while insurance issues are also adding fuel to the hostility.

But Jude, speaking at length for the first time since the crisis that has torn Pooler apart, said his side should have had £75,000 from the Union for three live TV games last season, all in the Principality Cup, but no cheque has arrived yet.

Also, he said they are due a total of £110,000 for WRU payments from the last three months which also have failed to appear.

Defiant Jude is now ready to take his own action, and said: "I'm going to be taking half-page ads in newspapers to put the true facts across and let people know the reality of it.

"I have not been paid by the WRU for three televised games - Swansea, Ebbw Vale and Llanelli in the cup - and in April, May and June, I should have had another £110,000 from the WRU in funding.

"Through July, August and September, we should have another £110,000 and the first payday for the players would be on October 5. That is a vital date.

"If you add that lot up, it's £295,000 for me to put the squad together and pay all the players up until October 5.

"I don't want sympathy and I don't want people to say 'you did a good job, Bob'. All I want is the facts."

Jude reckons that, with added sponsorship and season tickets, Pooler would have had half-a-million pounds in the bank by that October 5 payday but, instead, because the Union moved the goalposts and went for regional rugby last season, he is left holding the baby and will only get £4,000 from the new campaign.

He added: "I put my money into Pontypool Rugby Club not to bring back the 'glory days' but to get us into the Premiership but good business has not been adhered to by the WRU. No wonder Bob Jude at Pontypool is in the mire!

"I have a meeting with the council on Tuesday to see what we will do with the ground. I have done everything I said I would do.

"I have let nobody down and if you sit down for two hours or ten days, these figures (that he is owed by the Union) will not change.

"All I know about next season is that myself and Susan (his wife) are prepared to invest another £50,000 into Pontypool but we don't know what we will get from the Union.

"Why don't they get behind me and just see that this is the situation and here are the facts?

"Why can't we get a campaign going saying (to the WRU) 'We want our money?"

Just as the sportswear company are taking Pontypool Premier Rugby Club Ltd to court, so Jude may be contemplating the same action against the WRU.

He added: "It's already with solicitors. I set the business up on the premise that we would be playing Cardiff, Newport and Llanelli next season, starting on September 9, and we would have had half-a-million pounds in the coffers by October 5."