Career
Most recently he was head of professional sports group at global advisory firm BDO International International before leaving in July 2015 to set up his own sports consultancy practice. Birch started out as an apprentice football player aged 16 when he joined Liverpool Football Club in 1974 – he was the last player signed by Bill Shankly – but only played for the reserves, with his claim to fame being that he was in the initial squad of 18 for the European cup final against Bruges in 1978 but did not make the final squad of 16. 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 Football Club after which he retired from playing professionally.
He also continued to played semi-professionally with clubs including Marine Football Club, Runcorn Football Club, and Northwich Victoria Football Club. In 2002 he left Ernst Young to become Chief Executive of Chelsea Football Club where he restructured the club before brokering a £180 million pound Roman Abramovich take-over during June and July 2003. After the sale, Birch chose not to stay at the club and in October 2003 was subsequently appointed Chief Executive of Leeds United Football Club, another club with huge debts, and was briefly Chairman and Chief Executive following Professor John McKenzie"s resignation.
He undertook restructuring which helped the club avoid administration and oversaw the takeover by Gerald Krasner"s consortium. He then moved to Everton Football Club 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, he resigned just six weeks later.
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 Football Club and Sheffield United Football Club. Most recently he returned to the Accountancy profession in 2011, where he joined PKF(United Kingdom)Limited Liability Partnership, and quite quickly was back in football as Administrator of financially troubled Portsmouth Football Club. He successfully restructured the club and sold it to the Pompey Supporters" Trust, before performing a similar feat as Administrator at Heart of Midlothian Football Club in 2013. In 2013 PKF merged with BDO International International where Birch went on to head up the Professional Sports Group before leaving to set up on his own in July 2015. On 17 November 2015, it was confirmed that Birch had joined Bolton Wanderers Football Club as an advisor to the club"s board and owner.
On 22 March 2016, he left Bolton with the club having been taken over by Sports Shield Consultancy.
