NEW Tamworth owner Abdullah Ashraf says he is ready to serve up ‘a new dawn’ at The Lamb – after being impressed by the club’s pasta dish!
Ashraf, 24, confirmed his takeover at the National League side last week and immediately began laying the groundwork aimed at getting Tamworth into the EFL.
He spoke at a launch event to officially announce his arrival in Staffordshire, which was attend did by a number of Lambs officials and fans at the Assembly Rooms.
And the message was one of building on the progress made by Tamworth over the past few seasons under manager Andy Peaks.
But Ashraf admitted he was alerted to the possibility of buying the club thanks to some tasty home cooking.
And he confirmed that his connections with Truro City would now be severed as a result of the Lambs buyout.
Ashraf is the founder and CEO of Dawn Capital and Dawn Sports Entertainment – and has ownership interests in US team Oklahoma United FC.
He told M6 Sport: “We came here last season with Truro, and the food in the boardroom at Tamworth, I’ll tell you, there was nothing like it.
“That lasagna was absolutely incredible. And so, from that point forward, the food was something that I always remember.
“From there, when we were told that, hey, you know, there is an opportunity to come in and acquire this amazing football club.
“That was something to where I was saying, ‘How do we make that happen? We’re going to do everything in our power to make that happen’ – and here we are.
“We currently own about eight per cent at Truro. But we’re in active conversations to liquidate it.
“And we are not involved at all in the day to day of that club. And our full 100 per cent focus is Tamworth.”
Ashraf made it clear to the audience that anyone wary of American owners, based thousands of miles away, need not worry as the club is ‘in safe hands’.
He added: “I’ve been a football fan my entire life. I’d always wanted to be involved with the game. I played until I was 16.
“But my pro dreams didn’t come true.
“And from the end of my playing days, I was always looking for a way to get back in and, as the business developed the way that it did, football ownership was something that we started to consider very seriously.
“As that happened, we started to look at what clubs were available, what opportunities existed.
“We found a club that we acquired a small minority stake in. But what happened to be the game, that I went to was Truro City versus Tamworth. And it’s just an incredible story of fate.”
Ashraf has made it clear that his goal is to turn Tamworth into a Football League club.
He concedes that will not be a one-season job with the team’s transition into becoming full-time, the Lamb’s artificial pitch and planned ground improvement all set to take time.
Ashraf told the audience that talks with the local council about buying the Lamb Ground are underway – and a joint venture with the Snow Dome is also in the pipeline with community involvement in mind.
He added: “EFL is our goal, that’s our dream, that’s our vision. We’re going to do everything in our power to take us there.
“There’ll be a totally different stadium. A new look. We want it to be a stadium that fans can be very proud of.
“We want Tamworth fans to be able to say The Lamb is one of the best stadiums in this country. Maybe not be the biggest, but one of the best.”
Ashraf also confirmed his support for Peaks who has now returned from holiday to prepare for the new season in August.
He said: “We love Andy, we’ve talked multiple times to him throughout this process.
“I’ve loved getting to know Andy, and I’m looking forward to working with him in the future. He’s at work already.”
