World Cup 2026: England vs Ghana clash hit by payment chaos following Worldpay outage

Fans across Britain were hit by widespread payment disruption during England’s 0-0 draw with Ghana in the World Cup on Tuesday evening after a major outage affected payment processor Worldpay.

The technical failure struck during the match, leaving many customers unable to complete contactless transactions at pubs, supermarkets and other outlets at a time when supporters were gathering to follow the Group L fixture.

Reports of failed payments surged online, with users flocking to Downdetector to flag issues. Several customers also reported problems making contactless payments at Tesco stores, while some pubs were forced to notify patrons via social media that they were only accepting cash until systems were restored.

Cash rush and queues outside ATMs

The outage triggered a sudden return to cash-based transactions for many, with social media videos showing queues forming outside ATMs as fans attempted to withdraw money during the match.

Pubs expecting strong trade on a busy World Cup night were left dealing with operational disruption, with some venues temporarily unable to process card payments at all while England and Ghana played out a goalless encounter.

Worldpay later acknowledged the incident, attributing the disruption to an external issue affecting its systems.

“A third-party power disruption is causing intermittent transaction authorization issues and tokenisation requests errors on some Worldpay platforms.

“Our technical teams have restored service to some platforms and continue to troubleshoot to restore full service as soon as possible.”

Concerns over resilience during peak events

The incident renewed scrutiny over the resilience of digital payment systems during major sporting events, when transaction volumes typically surge.

Scott Dawson, chief executive of payments firm Decta, warned of the financial risks posed during such high-demand periods.

“High-intensity events like major sporting fixtures create narrow windows where every failed transaction represents lost income and, potentially, a lost customer,” he said.

He added that operational resilience should not be treated lightly, stressing that “operational resilience can’t be treated as a compliance exercise or an afterthought”.

While England and Ghana shared the points in a goalless draw, many supporters were left contending with payment difficulties off the pitch as the outage briefly overshadowed the matchday experience.