Nigeria coach Samson Siasia is also in charge of his country’s Wafu Cup team |
Nigeria began the defence of their Wafu Cup title with a 1-0 win over Liberia.
The match had to be hastily rearranged following the last-minute withdrawals of Mali and Senegal from the West African regional championship.
Hosts Nigeria had been due to play Mali in the Group A opener and the change meant that Niger had a rest day.
Ekighio Ehiosun, who plays for Nigerian side Warri Wolves, scored the only goal of the game for coach Samson Siasia’s team of locally-based players.
Both Mali and Senegal explained their withdrawals to the BBC on Friday.
Senegalese Football Federation president Augustin Senghor said that confirmation of the dates of the tournament arrived too late for his nation to prepare properly.
Meanwhile, Mali’s football chief explained that his nation simply did not want to interrupt its domestic championship.
“We withdrew because we didn’t want to suspend the national championship in order to send players to the Wafu Cup,” Hammadoun Cisse, the Malian Football Federation president, told BBC Sport.
The absence of Senegal means that Group B has also been reduced to three teams – The Gambia, Togo and Ghana.
The organisers have revised the timetable of games and Friday will now be a rest day.
The next matches will be on Saturday with Nigeria playing Niger and Togo up against Ghana.
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Wafu Cup withdrawals explained