Goal-den Crust: Nearly 90,000 Pizza Pans Needed to cover a FIFA Football Pitch

Match day maths reveals how many pizza pans it would take to cover a standard football pitch ahead of England v Croatia on Wednesday 17 June.

As England prepares for its match with Croatia, Birmingham based manufacturer and supplier of light catering equipment, Chef Set Ltd, has tackled a very different kind of match day challenge: just how many 12-inch pizza pans would it take to cover an entire football pitch?

The answer is...

With World Cup fever expected to drive close to £900 million* in additional spending across UK pubs, bars, restaurants and venues, Chef Set has calculated that using a standard football pitch and a staggered honeycomb layout, nearly 90,000 pizza pans would be needed to cover the playing surface from end to end, proving that when it comes to pizza, this really is a game of two halves.

The calculation was carried out using Chef Set's professional 12-inch non-stick pizza pans, arranged in the most efficient formation possible. 

Simmie Korotane, Communications Director at Chef Set Ltd, said: “With England in action, we thought we’d put our own spin on match-day preparations. Football and pizza are both crowd-pleasers, so bringing them together felt like a natural fit.

“We knew the final figure would be big, but discovering it would take nearly 90,000 12-inch pizza pans to cover a football pitch was a real slice of surprise.”

Whether it’s catering for a local team, a packed restaurant or a major hospitality venue, Chef Set's professional pizza range includes pizza pans, dough boxes, tiered racks and other essentials ready for kick-off.

-Ends-

Notes to editors

* Research conducted by GlobalData on behalf of VoucherCodes.co.uk - 2026 FIFA World Cup Spending Report

The calculation is based on a standard football pitch measuring 105 m × 68 m, giving a total pitch area of 7,140 m².

The pizza pan used in the calculation is a 12-inch circular pan, with a diameter of 30.48 cm.

Pans are circular, therefore the calculation does not simply divide the pitch area by the area of one pan.

The calculation uses a staggered honeycomb layout, on a flat surface without overlap. Empty gaps between the circular pans are left empty and not counted.

In this layout:

Pan diameter: 0.3048 m
Horizontal spacing: 0.3048 m, as pans touch side by side
Vertical row spacing: 0.3048 × √3 ÷ 2 = 0.26397 m, rounded to 0.264 m
Rows across pitch width: 68 ÷ 0.264 ≈ 257 rows
Pans per row: alternating rows fit 344 and 343 pans

The final calculation is:

129 rows × 344 pans = 44,376 pans
128 rows × 343 pans = 43,904 pans

Total: 88,280 pizza pans

Media contact:

Simmie Korotane, Communications Director, Chef Set Ltd.  Simmie@chefset.co.uk / 0121 3566858

About Chef Set Ltd

Established in 1978, Chef Set Ltd is a UK manufacturer, importer and distributor of professional light catering equipment, supplying distributors and wholesalers serving the hospitality and foodservice sectors in the UK and overseas.

For sales enquiries: Sales@chefset.co.uk | 0121 356 6858
https://chefset.co.uk