National League side Tamworth FC have a new owner, a new ambition and, for the first time in their 93-year history, a transatlantic future. In mid-June 2026 the club confirmed it had been bought by American property investor Abdullah Ashraf, whose US firm Dawn Group International (DGI) now controls the Staffordshire outfit affectionately known as "The Lambs."
The acquisition brought to a close a process that had been bubbling away for months. As far back as late April, ITV News Central reported that a United States consortium was closing in on the club and was only weeks from sealing an agreement, with prospective buyers spotted in the stands for Tamworth's 5-1 win over Braintree. By the middle of June the speculation had hardened into fact: on 16 June 2026 the club announced the takeover by DGI, with Ashraf installed as chairman.
Crucially, this was not a deal waved through in a back room. According to The National League's own coverage and reporting from Yahoo News UK, the transaction was signed off by the Football Association, the Football League and the newly created Independent Football Regulator - a sign of how much more scrutiny club sales now attract in the English game.
Ashraf succeeds Bob Andrews and Steve Lathbury, the long-serving owners who steered Tamworth for roughly four decades. The incoming chairman was quick to credit their work, noting back-to-back promotions, the club's headline-grabbing 2024/25 FA Cup run and its consolidation in the fifth tier as achievements worth building on. In his own words, he described himself as the club's next "custodian" and pledged to honour what came before.
At 24, Ashraf is strikingly young to be running an English football club, but he arrives with a dealmaking track record. TheBusinessDesk.com reports that he has been involved in more than $250 million of commercial real estate transactions across the United States and oversees a property platform with assets and developments topping $100 million.
Football is not new territory for him either. He was a driving force behind the founding of Oklahoma United FC in his home state, and the wider Dawn group has ties to the American soccer ecosystem. The National Soccer Network identified the ownership group's links to Dawn Sports & Entertainment and the Jacksonville Armada, and named Nathan Walter - the Armada's long-time president and general manager - as a fellow investor and new board director at Tamworth.
Rounding out the new leadership is Scott Rickards, appointed chief executive. A childhood Tamworth fan with a quarter-century association with the club as player, coach and most recently general manager, Rickards represents continuity at a moment of upheaval. He has spoken about sharing the new owners' appetite to "make things happen," and said detailed conversations about the club's priorities were under way even before the deal closed.
The headline goal is unambiguous. Ashraf has said he intends to turn the prospect of Tamworth reaching the English Football League into reality - a milestone the club has never achieved in more than nine decades. ITV's early reporting captured the scale of the hope inside the club: insiders, confident in their backers' financial muscle, spoke openly of a "Wrexham-style" climb up the pyramid, albeit on a more realistic timeline than the Hollywood-fuelled rise of the Welsh side.
There is concrete groundwork beneath the rhetoric. The Lambs are currently a part-time club that does not own their home, The Lamb Ground. At an unveiling event, Ashraf revealed the new board is in talks with Tamworth Council to acquire the stadium - described as a first step toward the infrastructure upgrades the owners want to put in place. For a club in a town of fewer than 80,000 people, that kind of investment could meaningfully raise the ceiling on what is possible.
Tamworth's sale did not happen in isolation. As ITV noted, the Lambs are the latest Midlands club to draw American money, joining Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion and Walsall under US ownership, with Shrewsbury Town reportedly in discussions of their own. The trend has reshaped the region's football landscape and, inevitably, stirred debate among supporters wary of overseas owners.
Ashraf appeared keenly aware of that anxiety. Addressing it head-on at his introduction, he framed himself as a supporter first and a businessman second, insisting he would be hands-on rather than, in his phrase, an absentee owner watching from across the Atlantic. He promised frequent trips to England and signalled an intent to become a familiar presence at matches.
The new regime wasted little time courting the fanbase. A press conference was held at Tamworth's Assembly Rooms on 19 June, followed by a celebratory FanFest at The Lamb the next day. Early supporter reaction gathered by Fan Banter was broadly optimistic, mixing relief that months of uncertainty were over with curiosity about what the takeover will mean for areas like the club's academy.
For now, the prevailing mood is one of cautious excitement. Whether Ashraf can convert ambition and capital into promotions remains to be seen — but, as he put it in signing off his first message to supporters, the aim is to bring about "a new dawn for Tamworth." Come on you Lambs.
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