By Piers Edwards BBC Sport, Dakar

President Abdoulaye Wade has entered the maelstrom of Senegal's current crisis by publicly expressing his desire to "put football in order".

Senegal fans have not had much to cheer about in recent months

Senegalese football has been in chaos after 29 members of the country's football federation resigned.

This followed Senegal's disastrous campaign at the Nations Cup finals.

"We've seen that the old directors were more interested in financial matters than football development," Wade told French radio station Europe 1.

Senegal has been without league football since September, while both the national team and a skeletal Football Federation (FSF) are currently run by interim appointments.

National coach Lamin Ndiaye, whose contract expires in June, will lead the Teranga Lions into next month's opening 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

Ndiaye was thrust into his role during Ghana 2008 after coach Henri Kasperczak surprisingly resigned midway through a tournament Senegal exited in the first round.

Yet while the current power vacuum continues, the former international's preparations for the qualifiers are chronically hampered.

"It's very difficult because I don't really know what to do apart from call the players to discuss it with them - and try to motivate them again," Ndiaye told BBC Sport.

"My work should consist of going to watch them in matches but I can't even do that - because nothing's happening.

"The minister hasn't been there and with a federation that practically no longer exists, who I am going to put my ideas to?"

After the resignations prompted the FSF to hand the power to run football back to the government last month, Fifa suggested the creation of a Normalisation Committee to run the sport.

Diagna Ndiaye, the chairman of Senegal's National Olympic Committee, is the unofficial head of this body but his appointment has not been confirmed by Fifa.

Ndiaye opened talks with key footballing parties last weekend, but has been unable to name his Normalisation Committee members so far.

One plus factor is that Senegal's new Minister of Sport, Bacar Dia, entered his office for the first time on Monday, replacing former minister Issa Samb who has been detained by illness since the Nations Cup.

As next month's World Cup and Nations Cup qualifier against Algeria looms, it seems the Lions will be without Marseille striker Mamadou Niang for the opening Group 6 tie.

Niang, second highest scorer in the French league, has said he will not play the match until he has spoken to the new administrators of Senegalese football.

"I saw things in Ghana that didn't please me at all and which I do not support," he told an Algerian website.

"The national team is a sacred cause and should not be played around with."

Last October, Senegal captain El Hadji Diouf briefly retired from international football after lamenting the amateurism of the FSF.