The world has been closely watching the 2012 Olympic Games in London, United Kingdom, since they began, and will continue to do so until their conclusion. Visa, which is serving as one of the Games' biggest sponsors, occupies the position of sole payment processing and pos terminals provider for the Games' venues. However, at Wembley Stadium on June 29, its card terminals failed.

According to Finextra, the failure took place during a soccer match between the U.K. and United Arab Emirates, which had attracted approximately 80,000 spectators. These people could only use cash to purchase food, beverages and other goods. In a statement, Visa claimed that the incident was attributable to the managers of Wembley Stadium.

"We understand that Wembley's systems failed and therefore they were only accepting cash at the food and beverage kiosks," the statement read. "This cash only decision was made by Wembley management and not Visa."

The news source reports that the failure provoked a disappointed response on Twitter, with one fan using the social network to highlight the plight of those who had no cash on hand. 

In early June, The Guardian reported that Visa's role as exclusive payment terminal provider for the games had earned strong criticism from some quarters, most notably Ron Delnovo, managing director of ATM provider Bank Machine. Delnovo claimed that most attendees "have no interest in becoming guinea pigs in product launches by sponsors."

To respond, the company stated that debit cards were the most likely method of payment to be used by U.K. spectators due to the prevalence of debit payments among the nation's consumers, and that those who did not use such cards would bring cash.