1979–1980 Shrewsbury Town Position Midfielder Years Team Height 1.8 m | 1974–1979 Liverpool Role Footballer Playing position Name Trevor Birch | |
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Date of birth (1958-02-16) 16 February 1958 (age 57) | ||
Place of birth Liverpool, England | ||
Trevor Birch (born 16 February 1958) is a former professional footballer who is now a chartered accountant and football executive. He joined the global valuation and corporate finance advisors Duff & Phelps as a Managing Director in January 2017, having previously led the professional sports group at global advisory firm BDO International, before leaving in July 2015 to set up his own sports consultancy practice.
Birch started out as an apprentice footballer aged 16 when he joined Liverpool FC in 1974. He left to join Shrewsbury Town in 1979 for a then club record fee of £50,000. He also had a brief spell at Chester City FC 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 Ernst & Young. He also continued to play semi-professionally with clubs including Marine FC, Runcorn FC, and Northwich Victoria FC.
In 2002, he left Ernst & Young to become Chief Executive of Chelsea FC, where he led the £180 million take-over in 2003. After the sale, Birch chose not to stay at the club and in October that year was appointed Chief Executive of Leeds United FC, overseeing the takeover by a local consortium. He then moved to Everton FC in June 2004 to become Chief Executive. Birch was given the task of overhauling the Merseyside club's finances, but after a disagreement over strategy with the board and major shareholders.
Since then Birch has been a partner at Deloitte and Chief Operating Officer of Sportfive, the largest football rights agency in Europe, as well as holding other Chief Executive roles at Derby County FC and Sheffield United FC.
Most recently he returned to the Accountancy profession in 2011 and undertook the role of Administrator at financially troubled Portsmouth FC. Under his stewardship the club was sold to the Pompey Supporters' Trust, with Birch performing a similar feat as Administrator at Heart of Midlothian FC in 2013.
He left BDO in July 2015 in order to set up his own advisory business and 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.
In March 2017 Portsmouth F.C. confirmed that they had retained the services of Mr. Birch during a period of negotiations with Mike Eisner and his investment vehicle Tornante regarding a takeover of the club.