KABUL (AFP) - The Afghan football team has been forced to forfeit a shot at the Olympics because it cannot afford to travel to Vietnam for a qualifier, and also due to security worries.

The fledgling side was to have played Vietnam in Hanoi on Wednesday, but Korean trainer Sung Jea Lee decided to abandon the trip, Afghan Football Federation official Ali Askar La´ly told AFP.

"The key reason was financial," La´ly said, explaining that sponsorship from the private Kabul Bank had arrived too late for the team to make the trip.

"It was late. If we had sent the team, they would have been exhausted and wouldn´t have time for a proper rest," he said.

Concerns about a lack of proper football facilities in Afghanistan and the Taliban-linked insurgency also meant the war-scarred country would not be able to host any return matches, he said.

Afghanistan is trying to rebuild a sports sector after decades of war and hardship, including the 1996-2001 rule of the extremist Taliban regime, which frowned on sports.