Al-Talaba were the defending champions of the cup having beaten Al-Shorta 1–0 in the 2002 final, and the same was repeated in 2003 as Al-Talaba beat Al-Shorta 1–0 again to earn their second title. The competition was halted for more than six months after the quarter-finals due to the American invasion of Iraq, but the Iraq Football Association decided to complete the tournament, reducing the semi-finals to a single leg and moving the remaining matches to the safer northern city of Erbil. The 2003 final was the last Iraq FA Cup final to be played until 2016.