Minardi Need TV Funds to Survive, Says Stoddart

Minardi owner Paul Stoddart said on Thursday that his team will be on the grid for the European Grand Prix in two weeks but refused to predict whether they will see the season through.

Stoddart will attempt to prove to rival team bosses that his team are entitled to an estimated £12 million in television money at a meeting in London next week as he bids to save the Anglo-Italian outfit from collapse.

He insisted that Minardi will compete at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring but insisted without the £12 million he would have to consider funding losses to get the team to the end of the year.

"Minardi is entitled to the payment if it fulfills 100 percent the criteria, and despite repeated requests by me for other parties to this agreement to produce one single scrap of evidence, none has been forthcoming," Stoddart said.

"There is no doubt in law that we are one million percent (entitled to the money). We are the innocent party here. If Minardi gets the money then it will make the end of the season, but if it doesn't get the money will it get to the end of the season? Not unless I decide to fund the losses.

"I'm not going to give in easy. All we ever ask is a fair go and we don't seem to be getting it. There seems to be a hidden agenda which we are not part of and I'm not very impressed."

But later in an interview he added: "Minardi will be here until the end of the season and here next year unless I get seriously, seriously pissed off."

Stoddart revealed in Monaco that his team were facing the prospect of folding before the end of the season without the television funds, and also said that he had been forced to lay-off 22 of his staff at their English base in Ledbury.

He has had lawyers working on his case to prove the money is owed to his team and insisted that he will be disappointed if the situation is not resolved at the meeting on Thursday.

"It's moved on in that we know one million percent that we are in the right and it is up to me to convince the other team owners that that is the way it is," he said. "Obviously I'm going to do a bit of canvassing this weekend and hopefully we can resolve it once and for all at the meeting next week.

"What I said in Monaco is that I wouldn't go on indefinitely if we are starved of these sums because I won't get into a position where the company can't pay its debts and I would continue to fund losses either.

"But I think we need to draw a line here. It is our money, not charity we are asking for and it is something we are entitled to. We totally one million percent fulfill the criteria for this money and we will not go to arbitration. We expect to see it solved professionally on Thursday and I'll be bitterly disappointed if it is not."