Colin Love AM, (born 25 January 1945 in Australia) is the former chairman of the

Rugby League International Federation The International Rugby League (IRL) is the global governing body for the sport of rugby league football. The IRL organises the Rugby League World Cup, the oldest international rugby World Cup, as well as the Women's and Wheelchair equivalen ...

(RLIF),

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in rugby league in New South Wales, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Co ...

(NSWRL) and

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

(ARL). He was the seventh chairman of the ARL, and the eleventh of the NSWRL. Love, who acquired his law degree at

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

after matriculating from

Sydney Boys High School Sydney Boys High School ('SBHS'), otherwise known as Sydney High School ('SHS') or simply High, is an Australian government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Moore Park, New South Wales, a s ...

, graduating in 1961, began his association with

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

when he was involved with contract negotiations for players in the late 1970s. He was retained as the league's solicitor soon afterwards; Love was an active participant as a solicitor for the ARL and

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

during the

Super League war The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s. Sup ...

of the mid-1990s. Love was elected chairman of the ARL in 1999. On Saturday, 26 January 2007, Love was appointed a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for his contribution to both the sport of rugby league football and to

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. Love was succeeded as RLIF chairman in June 2011 by Scott Carter.

2008 World Cup controversy

Colin Love came under attack in August 2007 from the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' with a piece written by Josh Massoud that claimed that he acted unscrupulously in regard to the position for organising the

Rugby League World Cup The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by senior men's national teams who each represent member nations of the International Rugby League who run and administer the tournament. The tournament has be ...

as well as acting with undue regard in relation to how Love executed his duties in football. Massoud claimed, "If Love's dual role as ARL chairman and solicitor – or RLIF director and World Cup organiser – doesn't sound conflict-of-interest alarm bells, his SCG Trusteeship should," in reference to Love's allocation of at least one World Cup game to the

Sydney Football Stadium Sydney Football Stadium may refer to: * Sydney Football Stadium (1988), the original stadium which was demolished in 2019. * Sydney Football Stadium (2022) Sydney Football Stadium, currently known as Allianz Stadium for sponsorship reasons, i ...

instead of

Telstra Stadium Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Ol ...

. Daily Telegraph reporter Dean Ritchie later wrote, "Colin Love is today left with no option but to resign all official involvement with the 2008 World Cup." Ritchie summarised his view: "The public no longer tolerates the hollow cries of 'fair business', for instance, when a city councillor awards a rich contract to a company he owns shares in, and nor should it. Rugby league should be no different".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Love, Colin Members of the Order of Australia Living people 1945 births Australian rugby league administrators People educated at Sydney Boys High School University of Sydney alumni