Remember the Greek Superleague's armed pitch invader? He's now a billionaire...

Ivan Savvidi has had a strange couple of weeks. The Georgia-born Greek businessman with a controlling interest in Superleague side PAOK became notorious 10 days ago when he entered the field of play - armed - to protest a disallowed goal.

Yes, him.

Anyway, late March is going rather better for Savvidi - whose actions have subsequently caused the suspension of the Greek domestic league - and he has recently become a billionaire.

Alongside his footballing interests, he also owned Donskoy Tabak, a cigarette company which specialises in flavoured tobacco, and they've reached an agreement to be taken over by Japan Tobacco Inc for an eye-watering $1.6bn.

For what it's worth, Savvidi apologised for his actions at the beginning of the month, telling PAOK's official website: “I had absolutely no right to enter the pitch the way I did. My only aim was to protect tens of thousands of PAOK fans from provocation, riots and casualties. Please believe I had no intention to engage in a brawl with our opponents or the referees. And I obviously did not threaten anybody.”

Well, not obviously...

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Seb Stafford-Bloor is a football writer at Tifo Football and member of the Football Writers' Association. He was formerly a regularly columnist for the FourFourTwo website, covering all aspects of the game, including tactical analysis, reaction pieces, longer-term trends and critiquing the increasingly shady business of football's financial side and authorities' decision-making.