Football fans have slammed Olympic officials after tills stopped working and reports that some stalls ran out of food at Team GB’s game at Wembley Stadium last night.

Nearly 90,000 people packed out the stadium to watch Great Britain’s men take on the United Arab Emirates after Senegal played Uruguay, but some fans missed out on watching the games after being stuck in “ridiculous” queues for food and drink.

Spectators had been warned they could not bring food or drink into the stadium and must pay by cash or Visa cards, so when the card payment system stopped working and hour-long queues built up, some were understandably angry.

Andrew French, 41, went to watch the match with his two sons Aidan, ten, and Liam, seven. He told the Harrow Times that the family went without food for ten hours.

He added: “Ever since we bought the tickets they’ve been sending through letters saying you couldn’t bring a bag or anything, and more or less saying you’d have to buy your food and drink at Wembley.

“So what annoyed me most is not being able to get food – I would love to have taken in some sandwiches and a couple of bottles of cola, and not to be able to buy it is criminal.

“It was getting really quite unpleasant because there were no managers there, and staff were fighting each other for food at the tills. If you wanted to eat you would have missed the football because of the queues.”

He added that till staff were placating angry customers who had been waiting for food by handing them free pints of lager, which led to some fans getting drunk quickly and causing further queues.

Last night’s match was the first Olympic action at the stadium, but the venue regularly hosts large events with a capacity crowd.

 

Max Gore, 27, from Shepherd's Bush, west London, said: “The queues were ridiculous. I didn't have any cash and I couldn't pay on card.

“I asked the person behind the bar if there were any cash machines and they said some had been taken out for the Olympics. I had to trek around the stadium to find one.

“The problem went on for the whole evening. There were two games and they couldn't get it fixed.”

Other fans said on Twitter that big food queues remained at the start of Team GB’s match, meaning many missed at least some of the game, which the team went on to win 3-1.

Queues were at their worst in between the two games played at the stadium, as fans rushed to buy food during the break between play.

But despite the queues, a survey of last night’s customers by the stadium’s staff revealed that 70-80 per cent were satisfied with the service they received.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) said that the Visa problem had now been fixed in time for Wednesday’s matches, and denied that any stalls had ran out of food, claiming they merely had “restocking issues”.