KABUL, Feb 9: World football body FIFA has given Afghanistan a second chance to make a bid for the Olympics by agreeing to cover the costs of their trip to Hanoi for a rescheduled match, an official said Friday.

The destitute Central Asian nation skipped the February 7 game against Vietnam because sponsorship had come through too late.

“We wrote to FIFA about our problems,” national sports committee member Ali Askar La'ly told AFP, adding the letter said poor weather conditions had also played a part in the decision not to travel to Hanoi.

“Fortunately, FIFA agreed to reschedule our match for next Wednesday,” he said.

The world football body had also agreed to put up the 40,000 dollars it would cost for the 19-member team to make the journey, he said.

The February 14 match would be a one-off, though. Afghanistan would still not host the return match because of security fears linked to the Taliban-led insurgency and the poor state of its ground, he said.

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