2002–03 FA Cup 2002–03 FA Cup The 2002–03 FA Cup was the 122nd staging of the world's oldest cup competition, the FA Cup. The competition was won by Arsenal with a 1–0 victory in the final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff against Southampton, courtesy of a Robert Pires goal. At this stage the 48 Second and Third Division clubs joined the 32 non-league clubs who came through the qualifying rounds. The matches were scheduled to be played on the weekend of Saturday, 16 November 2002, with replays in the week commencing 25 November. The matches were scheduled to be played on the weekend
2002–03 FA Cup qualifying rounds 2002–03 FA Cup qualifying rounds The 2002–03 FA Cup Qualifying Rounds opened the 122nd season of competition in England for 'The Football Association Challenge Cup' (FA Cup), the world's oldest association football single knockout competition. The large number of clubs entering the tournament from lower down (Levels 5 through 10) in the English football pyramid meant that the competition started with six rounds of preliminary (2) and qualifying (4) knockouts for these non-League teams. The 32 winning teams from Fourth Round Qualifying progressed to the First Round Proper, where League teams tiered at Levels 3 and 4 entered the competition.