Query succeeds in phpmyadmin and in fails in php

Question

Can anyone tell me a reason a query just wont return the same data in php as the ones that it returns on phpmyadmin sql?

$query = "UPDATE `boards` SET `contestPlaces`=0, `contestPlacesFilled`=0";  
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("ERROR:QUERY_FAILED timeset 8" . mysql_error()); 

$query = "UPDATE `playerspoints` SET `points`=0";   
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("ERROR:QUERY_FAILED timeset 9" . mysql_error());

$query = "SELECT `avatarId`, `points` FROM `contestants`"; 
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("ERROR:QUERY_FAILED timeset 10" . mysql_error());

$qualified = array();

while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result));
{
    print_r($row);
    $qualified[] = $row;
} `

Result: Array ( [0] => ) SUCCESS.

I get no error, it just returns an empty result, while in phpmyadmin sql tab, it runs fine. I'm properly connected with the db, cause I run queries before this one. I checked to see and this one is the only one that fails without an apparent reason. So What should I look in order to see what's going wrong?

The user that I get connected to the database has the following privileges: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, CREATE VIEW, EVENT, TRIGGER, SHOW VIEW, CREATE ROUTINE, ALTER ROUTINE, EXECUTE

Answer 1

remove the semicolon:

while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result));
                                      ^

Answer 2

//this is latest code in php5.7.14 and accesses the database.....but still it was not working. //therefore, i found that the database coallition was not 'utf_general_ci' rather i kept default leading to 'latin_swedish'. //single mistake can ruin your project.

<?php
$mysqli_hostname = "localhost";
$mysqli_user = "root";
$mysqli_password = "krunal";
$mysqli_database = "krunal";
$bd = mysqli_connect($mysqli_hostname, $mysqli_user,  $mysqli_password,$mysqli_database);  
if(mysqli_connect_errno()){die("database connection  failed");}
?>


<?php 
 $sql= "SELECT * FROM `done`;";
$result=mysqli_query($bd,$sql);
if(!$result){
die("database query failed". mysqli_connect_error()."    (".mysqli_connect_errno().")");}?>



<?php while($row=mysqli_fetch_row($result)){
var_dump($row); }?>

<?php mysqli_close($bd);?>