The firm recently signed an agreement
Citic Holding IF Group LLC, a Delaware-based investment firm in which invested Chinese infrastructure player CITIC and others, signed an agreement for investing 180 – 200 million euros in the development of African Confederation of 7-A-Side Football (CAF7), which is born in 2025 and is part of International Federation of 7-a-side Football (IFA7) (press release). CAF7 aims to leverage on sport for promoting education, social integration and economic development.
Sources said to BeBeez International that on 10 September, Wednesday, Cyriack Boyomo, CAF7 secretary, sent to CITIC ceo Thomas J. Rutherford III a letter of acceptance for the investment proposal given its underlaying vision of youth empowerment, Sustainable sports infrastructure, institutional strengthening and global positioning of African 7-a-side football.
CITIC Holding IF Group received legal assistance Avocom LLP Partner Francesco Del Bene.
CITIC Holding IF Group will support CAF7 for its membership network development in all African countries; organization of flagship competitions such as the first African 7-a-side Football Cup of Nations, the CAF7 Champions League, Under 17/20 and Women’s tournaments and an intercontinental Africa-Caribbean-Pacific tournament to train and educate through certification programmes, technical workshops and partnerships with schools and universities with the creation of a Pan-African 7-a-side Football Academy; to find visibility in the press and social media; to forge institutional partnerships, collaborating with governments, NGOs and international organisations to promote sports and youth empowerment.
In September 2025, CITIC Holding IF Group announced the signing of a 1.8 billion US Dollars co-financing contract to support the construction in Gabon of a 972 km railway line connecting the mining area of Bélinga to the future deep-water port of Mayumba, which will require a total estimated investment of above 10 billion (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Such project also attracted the resources of Thelo Group, an investor in transport and financial services in sub-Saharan Africa, that chairman and CEO Ronnie Ntuli founded; EGAAD (Egyptian African Arab Co. for Development), a consortium of major business groups that Naguib Sawiris leads, and major construction companies like Orascom Construction.
In 2022, Citic Holding IF Group unsuccessfully tried to acquire Italian Serie A team Cagliari Calcio (press release) while its subsidiary Citic Europe Holdings previously purchased SK Slavia Prague and its stadium. In 2023, the firm sold the assets to Czech entrepreneur Pavel Tykač (press release).
