'I Love This Football Club' – Fifty Years Of The Birch
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21 MinutesReading time
We're booked in to speak to Alan 'The Birch' Birchenall MBE as the 50th anniversary of his move to Leicester City looms. It's a balmy, late summer morning and, before we reach the front door of his home in Mountsorrel, the door's already open. The full Birch experience is about to begin.
"Come on then, let's get this over with," he laughs, shepherding us into his hallway. He starts off jokingly refusing to make a cup of coffee, but an hour or so later, we're sat in his garden discussing the weekend's football and taking a caffeine hit with madeira cake he bought especially for his guests.
The Birch, 76, is part of the furniture at Leicester City Football Club, but it's more than that in reality. Over the years, he's raised millions of pounds for local charities with those Herculean runs around the pitches at Filbert Street and King Power Stadium. He's been a counsellor to staff and footballers alike through the ages, a figurehead at grand events and a representative around the world wherever the Foxes go. He's Mr. Leicester City.
