2002–03 AFC Champions League

The 2002–03 AFC Champions League was the twenty-second edition of Asia's premier football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and the first edition under the AFC Champions League title.

Sixteen teams competed in this edition as they went through qualifying before going into four groups of four with only the winner of the group qualifying to the knockout-stage which went to two-legs instead of the single leg that the previous year competition had. In the final it was Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates beating BEC Tero Sasana of Thailand 2–1 on aggregate.

West Asia

 * 🇮🇶 Al-Talaba
 * 🇶🇦 Al Sadd
 * Al-Hilal
 * Al-Ain

Central and Southern Asia

 * 🇮🇷 Esteghlal
 * 🇮🇷 Persepolis
 * 🇹🇲 Nisa Aşgabat
 * 🇺🇿 Pakhtakor

ASEAN

 * 🇹🇭 BEC Tero Sasana
 * 🇹🇭 Osotsapa FC

East Asia

 * 🇨🇳 Dalian Shide
 * 🇨🇳 Shanghai Shenhua
 * 🇯🇵 Kashima Antlers
 * 🇯🇵 Shimizu S-Pulse
 * 🇰🇷 Daejeon Citizen
 * 🇰🇷 Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma

Semi-finals

 * }

Second leg
BEC Tero Sasana won 3–2 on aggregate.

Al-Ain won 7–6 on aggregate.

Final

 * }

Second leg
Al-Ain won 2–1 on aggregate.

Top scorers

 * 9
 * 🇨🇳 Hao Haidong (Dalian Shide)
 * 4
 * Boubacar Sanogo (Al Ain)
 * 🇹🇭 Therdsak Chaiman (BEC Tero Sasana)
 * 3
 * 🇨🇲 Patrick Suffo (Al-Hilal)
 * 🇮🇷 Ali Samereh (Esteghlal)
 * 🇺🇿 Anvarjon Soliev (Pakhtakor)
 * 🇰🇷 Kim Dae-eui (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)
 * 🇰🇷 Kim Do-hoon (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)
 * Saul Martínez (Shanghai Shenhua)
 * 🇰🇷 Ahn Jung-hwan (Shimizu S-Pulse)