Theo Paphitis is a greek born multi-millionaire former chairman of Millwall FC who has since gained fame as a TV pundit on the BBC’s Dragons Den.

Paphitis bought Millwall in 1987  when the club was in administration and many have credited Paphitis with working his magic to get the club back on its feet. The club however was not in a dire situation compared to a lot of lower league clubs, it was debt free, owned its own ground and had enough money to keep it running for at least 18 months and would require little personal investment from Paphitis pockets.

He was hugely popular and equally unpopular at differing times during his reign, he has been championed for appointing Dennis Wise but was heavily criticised for appointing West ham man Billy Bonds. Unpopularity would not bother Paphitis though who upon hearing that Millwall fans most famous chant ‘no -one likes us we don’t care’ commented “The fact that no-one likes us, that was me all over, that job had my name on it!”

He did much to improve the image of the club but many fans objected to his measures such as compulsory membership schemes, and the sale of high profile players such as Tim Cahill. He also attempted to change the playing kit from the traditional Blue and white to all grey in order to rebrand the club but met with too much resistance from the Millwall faithful so merely opted for removing the ‘rampant lion’ emblem from the strip outraging the fans yet further. The badge has since been restored to the shirt and Paphitis has since left the club, severing all ties in 2006.

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