Fiji’s hopes of Super Rugby inclusion are fading fast as World League negotiations delay an agreement on the future of Super Rugby.

Sydney Morning Herald reports the Fiji Rugby Union in June submitted a bid to join the southern hemisphere’s professional rugby competition but have all but given up hope of success after SANZAAR upped its financial demands on prospective entrants.

The figure, understood to be somewhere around $14 million to $17 million, has almost certainly put a national union-run franchise beyond the reach of Fiji and Samoa, the most realistic of candidates in the Pacific Islands.