It is an accepted practice that football ruling bodies would not allow official matches to be played in areas where there is a war-zone, conflicts, unrest or civilian disobedience.  It is simply to prevent harm to the players, officials, and fans.

The application of the rule has always been based on facts, data and real events. FIFA and other ruling bodies do not have the intelligence and the apparatus to truly judge on such situation, they mostly depend on organizations such as the Security Council of United Nations, unbiased government authorities or similar specialists to pass such a ban on playing in a certain country.

AFC case with Iran is certainly not based on any such fact or ruling. There is no United Nations communique on that matter nor is Iran a war zone or has declared war on any country. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has been involved in a war with Yemen for 4 years, its cities have been bombed and could be exposed to acts of war at any time. The Yemeni forces have succeeded in hitting the most treasured energy sources deep inside Saudi Arabia, yet AFC in its wisdom does not consider this rich and influential country as a risk to anyone, despite being officially engaged in a war!!

So clearly the decision that Iranian teams have to play on neutral grounds and deprived of hosting is purely political decision influenced by the powerful Arab lobby headed and financed by Saudi Arabia.

It is no secret that the Saudi Influences has installed the current head of the AFC and what the Saudis say, AFC listens.

There is a lack of transparency on the reasons that AFC has declared Iranian cities unsafe and unless AFC provides credible evidence and facts then this is one is yet another evidence of bias towards Iran by the powerful Arab countries.

The Arabian bias has played a major role in Asian football from expelling Israel from the AFC to appointments of the Arab countries representatives in various posts, influencing major decisions, winning for Arab players and teams and even selecting Arabic language as an official while 3.5 billion people speaking Chinese and Hindi are not recognized or worthy of having their languages included in the AFC official website.

This bias against Iran which stems from the political animosity towards it from the Gulf Arab countries is supplemented by the weak representation and power of Iranian representatives in the AFC and its various committees. Many of these representatives are not worthy of sitting on a village council let alone representing Iran at International levels. So, it is expected that sympathy towards Iran is minimal in the AFC corridors, although it is not a question of sympathy. It is a question of facts, data, and proofs which are lacking in the AFC decision.

At the end of the day, if Iranian clubs withdraw, the AFC Champion League will be that much poorer. Matches are played in stadiums with crowds in hundred in West Asia. That is nowhere near what huge numbers that Perspolis and Esteghlal can attract in Azadi.