Ghana to face Zambia in 2017 WAFU Cup opener

The local component of the Black Stars will battle it out with their Gambian counterpart in the opening game of the 2017 West African Football Union (WAFU) tournament on September 9.

The game which will be played at the Essipong Stadium in Sekondi was confirmed at a brief drawing ceremony at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.

The other games in group A will see Ghana’s arch-rivals Nigeria take on Sierra Leone whiles Mali lock horns with Mauritania. The last game of the group will be between Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Group B will be based in Cape Coast with the opening knockout fixtures involving African highest ranked nation Senegal versus Liberia.

Ivory Coast has been paired with Togo; Benin will clash with Cape Verde and Burkina will play Niger.

The winners will remain in the Group for the round-robin exercise which will see the two best teams advance to the semi-final. The final of the inaugural 16-team tournament will be played on 24 September.

The country that will emerge the winner of the tournament that is reserved for locally based players will get 100,000 dollars