By Dai
September 22 2003

Shareholders of Pontypridd RFC were invited to one of two meetings which took place this morning (Sunday 21st September) which aimed to keep the shareholders up to date with the financial problems at the club. Without going into too much detail, the likely course of action is that Pontypridd RFC will go into administration and a new company called Ponty Rugby Ltd will be set up to take over the running of the club although nothing has been decided for definite yet.

We believe that the debt is just over £670,000 but this is split into a number of smaller amounts which is owed to separate parties and Gareth Thomas, the Pontypridd Chief Executive will be writing to shareholders shortly to outline what will happen in the coming months. This will allow shareholders to have a more detailed understanding of what will be done to help the club survive and will enable them to make a decision about investing in the new company.

Unfortunately we are unable to go into any further detail however if people think that Pontypridd are the only club which have financial difficulties then they are wrong - in fact most of the clubs in the Welsh Premiership are in a far worse state than Pontypridd RFC but unlike Pontypridd, they are lucky enough to have support from benefactors.

An announcement from Pontypridd RFC on the future of the club is expected in the next few days although it looks likely that the club will survive at semi professional level. I'm sure that many people will want to know how the Warriors will be affected by all of this but we are unable to comment on this issue as todays meetings were held to keep shareholders of Pontypridd RFC informed of the financial position of the club and did not focus heavily on the Warriors. A further update will be coming soon but if you do have any questions leave them on the messageboard.