Senegal coach Ndiaye fired

Lamine Ndiaye has been sacked as coach of Senegal following the team’s failure to reach the final phase of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.

The Teranga Lions could only finish third in Group 6 following the 1-1 draw at home to their Gambian neighbours in Dakar on Saturday.

The Fifa-appointed Normalisation Committee currently running Senegalese football decided to dismiss Ndiaye on Monday evening.

Yet some officials, such as sports minister Bacar Dia, wanted to keep Ndiaye in his post - simply to avoid any legal wrangling since his contract was due to expire at the end of the month.

Interim control has been handed to national technical director Amsata Fall, who is now charged with finding a new coach in conjunction with the Sports Ministry.

His task will be complicated by the fact that the 2002 World Cup quarter-finalists will not play a competitive fixture until late 2010 at the earliest following their qualifying failures.

Ndiaye, a former international, took charge of Senegal during January’s Nations Cup in Ghana following the shock resignation of Henri Kasperczak midway through the tournament.

Angry fans vandalised the Football Federation’s headquarters

His early months in the job were anything but easy as some 30 Senegalese football federation members resigned in the wake of Senegal’s disastrous Nations Cup campaign.

For the first three months of his job, the 51-year-old was unable to travel to watch any players because of the power vacuum in Senegal’s football administration.

This left him little time to properly prepare for the start of the Group 6 qualifiers at the end of May.

In his eight matches in charge, Ndiaye led Senegal to just two wins, drawing five matches and only suffering defeat in Algeria last month.

Meanwhile, the Normalisation Committee has confirmed it will pay the international footballers their match bonuses despite Saturday’s failure.

The issue has been fiercely debated since Saturday, with locals having already expressed their anger when rioting on the streets of Dakar in the hours after Senegal’s elimination.