Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has launched the new Indo Pacific Rugby Championship which hopes to include a team from Fiji and will kick off next year.
Forrest is in negotiations with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) to ensure players who compete in his competition will also be eligible to play Super Rugby and represent the Wallabies.
The billionaire's actions come after his beloved Western Force were cut from Super Rugby.
The Australian Rugby Union says that Forrest's $54m offer to save the Western Force came too late.
Forrest hopes to have six teams in the competition, which is expected to start early next August.
He said it would be in the ARU's best interests to allow Wallabies players to feature in the new competition as well as Super Rugby.
Forrest says the markets he hopes to target will be Australia, Singapore, Samoa, Fiji, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
He also says that he is now consulting with international broadcasters, media organisations and other global businesses, with great interest in the Indo Pacific, as well as Australia’s leading coaches and players, both in Australia and overseas
With the success so far of the Fijian Drua side in the National Rugby Championship it is unclear as to wether the Fiji Rugby Union will be entering a Fijian national side into the Indo-Pacific Competition that has been proposed.
Source: Stuff.co
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