Trevor Birch (born 16 February 1958) is an English chartered accountant, football

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

, and former professional footballer. He is chief executive of the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

. Birch has been an executive at several clubs, including

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

, Swansea City,

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

, Everton,

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

, and

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

. Birch has worked at

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

BDO International BDO (an acronym for Binder Dijker Otte) is an international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms that provide professional services under the name BDO. It is the fifth-largest accounting network in the wor ...

, and

Duff & Phelps Kroll, LLC, formerly Duff & Phelps LLC, is an American multinational financial consultancy firm based in New York City. It was founded as Duff & Phelps in 1932 by William Duff and George Phelps. Since then, the firm has added more than 30 comp ...

Career

Early career

Birch started out as an apprentice footballer aged 16 when he joined

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

in 1974. He left to join

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

in 1979 for a then club record fee of £50,000. He also had a brief spell at Chester after which he retired from playing professionally. He then enrolled at Liverpool Polytechnic aged 24 and gained a first class degree in Accountancy before qualifying as a chartered accountant with

. He also continued to play semi-professionally with clubs including Marine,

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

, and Northwich Victoria.

Financial career

In 2002, he left Ernst & Young to become Chief Executive of

, where he led the £180 million sale to

Roman Abramovich Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (, ; he, רומן ארקדיביץ' אברמוביץ'; born 24 October 1966) is a Russian oligarch and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London, England, and is the ...

in 2003. After the sale, Birch chose not to stay at the club and in October that year was appointed Chief Executive of

, overseeing the takeover by a local consortium. He then moved to Everton in June 2004 to become Chief Executive. Birch was given the task of overhauling the

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

club's finances, but resigned after a disagreement over strategy with the board and major shareholders. Since then Birch has been a partner at

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

and Chief Operating Officer of Sportfive, the largest football rights agency in Europe, as well as holding other Chief Executive roles at

and

. He returned to the accountancy profession in 2011 and undertook the role of Administrator at financially troubled

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. Under his stewardship the club was sold to the Pompey Supporters' Trust, with Birch performing a similar feat as Administrator at Heart of Midlothian in 2013. He subsequently undertook an advisory role to the Board at Bolton Wanderers in late 2015 which finished in March 2016 on the sale of the club. He joined the global valuation and corporate finance advisors

as a Managing Director in January 2017, having previously led the professional sports group at global advisory firm

. In March 2017 Portsmouth confirmed that they had retained the services of Mr. Birch during a period of negotiations with Mike Eisner and his investment vehicle

Tornante The Tornante Company, LLC is an American privately held investment firm founded in 2005 and owned by former Paramount Pictures and The Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner. Tornante invests in, acquires, and operates media and entertainment ...

regarding a takeover of the club. He became chairman of Swansea City on 18 March 2019. He became

Director of Football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

on 1 September 2020. He left to join the

as chief executive in January 2021.

References

External links

Trevor Birch at Duff & Phelps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birch, Trevor Living people 1958 births British sports executives and administrators Chelsea F.C. non-playing staff Chester City F.C. players English footballers Everton F.C. directors and chairmen Liverpool F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Marine F.C. players Runcorn F.C. Halton players Northwich Victoria F.C. players Skelmersdale United F.C. players Association football midfielders Chelsea F.C. chairmen and investors Derby County F.C. directors Chairmen of Leeds United F.C. English Football League players National League (English football) players Footballers from Liverpool Sheffield United F.C. directors and chairmen Tottenham Hotspur F.C. directors and chairmen English Football League