[2] East Bengal entered the 2002-03 IFA Shield as the defending champions and were allocated into Group A alongside Indian Bank, Churchill Brothers and Tollygunge Agragami.
[3] In the second game, East Bengal faced a setback as they lost 0–1 against Churchill Brothers with Aqueel Ansari scoring the only goal for the goan side in the 83rd minute.
[4] In the last group game against Tollygunge Agragami, East Bengal won 2–1 with goals from Trijit Das and Suley Musah as they secured their place in the semi-finals.
[6] Churchill Brothers entered the 2002-03 IFA Shield as one of the NFL teams and were allocated into Group A alongside Indian Bank, East Bengal and Tollygunge Agragami.
In their last group game, Churchill Brothers stunned the defending champions East Bengal as they won 1–0 with Aqueel Ansari scoring the only goal of the match as they reached the semis.