Kenwright takes the chair at Goodison

Bill Kenwright has finally taken over as Everton chairman, replacing Sir Philip Carter, who will now be the club's life president. Kenwright, vice-chairman and club owner, takes over on the day that the new chief executive Trevor Birch starts his job.

Bill Kenwright has finally taken over as Everton chairman, replacing Sir Philip Carter, who will now be the club's life president. Kenwright, vice-chairman and club owner, takes over on the day that the new chief executive Trevor Birch starts his job.

Carter has decided to resign his position after almost 30 years on the board, with Keith Tamlin, another director in place since 1974, also quitting to become deputy president.

It is an attempt to streamline the club - the former chief executive Mike Dunford also left today - and allow Kenwright and the True Blue Holdings group that helped him buy the club five years ago to have total control.

The changes also mean that with Birch on board, there will be strong efforts made to provide the finances that manager David Moyes needs to rebuild the playing side after 14 players were released at the end of the season.

Sir Philip now ends his second spell as chairman after taking over at the end of the controversial Peter Johnson era. He held the top job in the boardroom between 1978 and 1991, overseeing an unprecedented run of success and most famously keeping faith with the under-fire manager Howard Kendall in the early part of the 80s.

The former chief executive of Littlewoods, Sir Philip was brought to the club by the former owner John Moores.

Kenwright said: "It is not only a great honour for me to become chairman of a club I have always loved, it is a great honour and a privilege to succeed a man of such stature - a great chairman and the most successful chairman in the club's history."

One of Kenwright's first moves as chairman has been to insist that Rangers are wasting their time in trying to lure Everton's young striker James McFadden back to Scotland.