UPDATE ON 18 DECEMBER: FINAL TO BE PLAYED LATER TODAY
QATAR. After Croatia’s fine 2-1 success over Morocco in the third-place play-off, there’s a tie at the top of the leaderboard (see below) in The Moodie Davitt Report’s thrilling readers’ competition dedicated to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, brought to you in association with Qatar Duty Free.
Marcel DeBellis of Beler Holdings in Canada, who has been near the top of the leaderboard throughout, scored his second successive hat-trick of 3 points to roar into a share of first place with Australia’s Kevin Zajax, owner of food & beverage specialist Ground Control. Kevin opted for a 3-1 scoreline to pick up a single point, while our long-time leader Alan Mathew from UAE-based travel retail distributor V Group plumped for a Morocco victory, resulting in him falling one behind our leaders,
Our next three contenders, Gerald Gruber of daa International in Riyadh, ASUTIL Secretary General José Luis Donagaray (both on 55 points) and our very own Declan Moodie (54) all predicted the winner but not the actual score.
What all that means under the tie-breaker rules (see below) is that our winner will come from the three front-runners. Even if José Luis Donagaray scores a perfect 3 points he could tie Marcel and Kevin if they go scoreless but in that event Marcel would win based on having picked the most exact scores. Effectively, both Kevin and Alan will have to outscore Marcel in the final. Pre-tournament, both Marcel and Kevin opted for Argentina and Alan for France. Will they stick to those predictions in this classic match-up between two great teams and their respective superstars Mbappé and Messi ?
We have a change at the top of the women’s leaderboard too after Caroline South of Caroline South Associates matched Marcel’s perfect prediction to move to 52 points, two ahead of Clarisse Daniels of Whyte & Mackay on 50, with a further point back to The Moodie Davitt Report’s Sinead Moodie on 49.
Tie-breaker
There are just three points to play for from the final but also a tie-breaker mechanism (our form of a penalty shoot-out) in place as follows:
If two or more players are tied on points, the differentiators will be as per the following (in order):
- Number of Correct Scores
- Number of Correct Results
- Competition Winning Team Prediction (made before the tournament began)
Interestingly, most of our top contenders chose either Argentina or France before the tournament kicked off. Here are their selections and their current number of correct scores and correct results, findings that reveal the critical value of a precise score prediction. Marcel DeBellis leads by that indicator with 13 correct scores.
Marcel DeBellis: Argentina; 13 correct scores; 32 correct results
Kevin Zajax: Argentina; 11 correct scores; 36 correct results
Alan Mathew: France; 9 correct scores; 39 correct results
José Luis Donagaray: Argentina (por supuesto); 9 correct scores; 37 correct results
Gerard Gruber: France; 9 correct scores; 36 correct results
Declan Moodie: Argentina; 9 correct scores; 36 correct results
Charles Roullet: France (qui d’autre?); 10 correct scores, 33 correct results
Frédérick Besson: France (naturellement); 10 correct scores; 33 correct results
Stephen Wincott: Brazil, 7 correct scores; 39 correct results
Please submit your predictions in time for the final.
- Final: Argentina v France (18 December)
Note: Prizes are open only to those involved in the aviation and travel retail sectors.
Leaderboard latest
*Important note: Penalty Shootouts
Now that the tournament has reached the knockout stage, extra time and penalties come into play.
Predictions are counted for the full match whether that’s 90 minutes or 120 minutes for a match that goes to extra time. When a penalty shootout occurs, the result of the shootout will count toward the correct result (so a prediction of Team A to win the match will award a point if they win via a penalty shootout). However, if a draw was predicted then the player will receive either 1 point for predicting a draw but the wrong score, or 3 points for predicting a draw and the right score, irrespective of whichever team proceeds to win on penalties.
The Moodie Davitt Report is providing charity-based prizes for first, second and third individual contestants with cash donations of US$500, US$300 and US$200 paid to a charity of their choice.
Qatar Duty Free is providing great prizes as excitement builds both for the competition and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 itself, which has already thrown up plenty of thrills and upset results.
As reported, Qatar Duty Free (QDF) has been named as Official Retail Store for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The agreement includes a licence to exclusively sell all related merchandise in the fan zones and at all eight stadiums.
QDF also just opened a FIFA store at Hamad International Airport’s magnificent new expansion, inaugurated on 10 November.
The competition, open to anyone involved in the aviation and travel retail sectors (mandatory), is based on match predictions for the 32 teams in a group stage and knockout format. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 concludes today (18 December) with the World Cup Final at the Lusail Iconic Stadium.
The rules are simple. Qualified readers make a score prediction in each of the matches, and are awarded points based on the accuracy of their predictions. You receive 3 points for an exact score prediction and 1 point if you predict the right result (win or draw) without getting the score correct.
