"You swing from sadness to anger because you just feel it could have been prevented." That is the view of Camilla Vigar, whose son Billy, a former Arsenal academy player, died a year ago today from a "significant brain injury", five days after colliding with a concrete wall surrounding a pitch. The 21-year-old striker was playing for Chichester City at Wingate and Finchley FC in north London. In their first broadcast interview since their son's passing, the Vigar family accuse the Football Association of doing "nothing" after previous similar incidents.
"[Billy] had his whole life ahead of him. He was 21 years old and he lost it playing football when he didn't need to," she told BBC Sport. "I personally feel that the FA could have stopped Billy losing his life because they had so many warnings." They give the example of amateur footballer Ben Hiscox, who died in 2015 after colliding with a clubhouse near Bristol.
After the coroner warned the FA about the risk of future deaths, padding was added to Stoke Gifford United's clubhouse and the run-off between it and the pitch was increased. The Vigars also point to the life-changing injuries sustained by Alex Fletcher in 2022. Fletcher fractured his skull when colliding with concrete barriers next to the pitch at Bath City's ground, and was forced to retire in 2024.
The FA conducted a review of clubs after that incident. "As far as I'm aware, nothing was done with that information and it just sat there. One of the clubs as far as I'm aware that was highlighted as being one of the high-risk clubs was Wingate [and Finchley], where Billy then lost his life," said Camilla Vigar.
When asked by the BBC what was done with the information it had gathered, the FA provided no comment. At the time of Vigar's accident, the FA's stadium accreditation criteria, which applies to the National League System in men's football and the Women's National League, said clubs needed to have a "permanent" barrier around the pitch "of sound construction (eg concrete and steel)". In light of what happened to Vigar, the FA launched a safety review of more than 900 clubs, which was conducted by independent experts.
As a result, the stadium criteria was updated last month and "no longer permits solid brick, breeze block or concrete barriers around pitches". The BBC has been told 169 clubs in the men's National League System and women's National League were notified they would need to make changes "as soon as is reasonably practicable". Where walls are structural, they must be "covered with suitable protection", such as padding.
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