Well, when I check that 2002 file it got 2804 real players, so guess the limit of 2500 is no more.
I added and changed some on your old 2002 file. Adding players that was only in pre-season and some played 1-2 games. Some was only added since they had some value for a position.
Maybe you can have a look and perhaps see if I got players you missed out on.
You find some comments and players above 2500 that I had but elected to take out before transform it into FOF8 file.
FOF8 2002 my workfile