Chelsea loses another senior director as CEO departs

Chelsea Village, the holding company for Chelsea Football Club, has lost its second senior director in a month with the announcement that its chief executive has left with immediate effect.

Michael Russell had only been in the job for about a year after replacing Peter Bewsey who only lasted a year himself.

Mr Russell, who had been with Chelsea for seven years, will be replaced by Trevor Birch, a former professional footballer who had only just replaced Colin Hutchinson as head of Chelsea Football club. Mr Hutchinson left last month to join Proactive Sport Management, a sports agency.

Mr Birch, 44, is thought to have impressed Ken Bates, the combative Chelsea chairman. It is not clear whether Mr Birch will hold the chief executive positions of both Chelsea Village and the London football club.

Chelsea issued only a two sentence statement to announce the changes, which come two months after the football finance expert Michael Woodward was installed as non-executive deputy chairman of both Chelsea Village and the football club. Mr Woodward is a former director of The Co-operative Bank, which is one of Chelsea's main bankers. Chelsea has debts of £100m as a result of developments at its Stamford Bridge ground and huge investment in players. It made a pre-tax loss of almost £4m in the first half after racking up losses of £11m in the previous full season.

The financial pressures on the club have been increased by its disappointing season in the Premiership which meant Chelsea failed to qualify for Europe's Champions League.

Mr Birch is a former Ernst & Young partner who used to play for Liverpool and Shrewsbury. He takes over as Chelsea Village's shares languish at 19p, close to their all-time low. They stood at 44p in August when the football season started with Chelsea tipped as a Premiership title contender. They have collapsed from 124p five years ago. Chelsea now has a stock-market valuation of just £32m, compared with Manchester United's £322m.