By Piers Edwards BBC Sport, Dakar

Many national team managers come under pressure, but one wonders how many have found themselves in the same situation as Senegal coach Lamin Ndiaye.

Senegal coach Lamin Ndiaye is struggling to prepare his side

The Teranga Lions may have successfully avoided a Fifa ban last month, but a power vacuum at the top of Senegalese football is having debilitating effects.

After the recent resignations of 29 leading Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) members, Fifa suggested the body create a Normalisation Committee to get the game back on its feet.

But since the head of this interim committee was appointed by the Ministry of Sport, not the FSF, Fifa has refused to recognise this decision - leading to a further impasse.

Ndiaye, 51, thus prepares for May's opening 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers without a working federation and without a national championship.

The crisis means there has been no league since September, leaving Ndiaye little chance to watch football - especially since no one within the FSF can grant him permission to travel.

"I have to observe my players on TV or talk to a friend who's seen a certain player, because I've reached the point where I have to send local people to matches," he told BBC Sport.

"It's not a good way to work."

Ndiaye took charge of Senegal at this year's Nations Cup, stepping up from assistant coach after Henri Kasperczak quit two matches into the Lions' first group stage exit since 1986.

Mamadou Niang has refused to play for Senegal against Algeria

To add to his problems, Mamadou Niang, the second top scorer in France, is refusing to play against Algeria next month because he is still unhappy with the organisation of the Teranga Lions at Ghana 2008.

"The problem with Senegalese football is that the FSF has only concentrated on the first team," says Joseph Koto, who coaches Jeanne d'Arc and Senegal's Olympic side.

"The federation doesn't care for other national teams - such as the junior, youth and Olympic sides: these teams don't get any bonuses nor does the FSF pay their coaches."

The FSF's inability to relinquish money is at the heart of Senegal's problems - which many trace back to the West Africans' annus mirabilis of 2002.

After reaching a first Nations Cup final, Senegal then took the World Cup by storm as they beat champions France before becoming only the second African team to reach the last eight.

"When the team came back from Asia, there were a lot of problems - especially in administration and how to use the money the team got from the World Cup," says sports journalist Aliou Goloko.

"Some FSF officials even went to jail for misusing World Cup funds - and from that day, Senegalese football has been having real problems."

In 2005, four former FSF members spent time in jail after being charged with embezzling funds awarded by Fifa for the nation's display in Japan and South Korea.

As this substantial sum was frittered away, a golden opportunity to develop the game had been ruined by the very people tasked with that duty.

And it says a great deal about Senegalese football that one of the four to have been jailed is the current president of the FSF, Bounama Dieye.

Little wonder then that Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade recently bemoaned how FSF directors have been more interested in money than in football development.