Story highlights Iranian, Saudi teams to meet in neutral venues as diplomatic issues remain unresolved

Six group stage matches will be affected

(CNN) Teams from Saudi Arabia and Iran will meet in neutral venues for AFC Champions League clashes, having failed to resolve their political differences ahead of a deadline set by Asian football's governing body.

The two nations have been at loggerheads since Saudi Arabia -- and a number of sympathetic nations -- shuttered its Tehran embassy , following the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia and subsequent protests in the Iranian capital.

The diplomatic freeze curbs travel between the two nations, with no dispensation for athletes.

The Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) Competitions Committee decided in January that neutral venues would be used if relations between the two countries had failed to normalize by March 15. It had previously decided to schedule group stage matches between clubs from the two until later in the tournament in order to evaluate the political and security situations in both countries.

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