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.

Qualification

West Asia

Central and Southern Asia

ASEAN

East Asia

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knock-out stage

Bracket

Semi-finals

First leg

Second leg

BEC Tero Sasana won 3–2 on aggregate. Al-Ain won 7–6 on aggregate.

Final

First leg

Second leg

Al-Ain won 2–1 on aggregate.

Top scorers