The parents of former Arsenal academy player Billy Vigar have accused the Football Association of failing to act on previous warnings about dangerous pitch surroundings before their son died following a collision with a concrete wall.
Vigar, 21, died a year ago after suffering a “significant brain injury” when he collided with a concrete wall while playing for Chichester City against Wingate and Finchley in north London.
Speaking in their first broadcast interview since their son’s death, his mother, Camilla Vigar, said the tragedy could have been avoided if the FA had acted on previous incidents involving footballers who suffered serious injuries after hitting structures close to pitches.
“You swing from sadness to anger because you just feel it could have been prevented,” she said.
“[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 added.
“I personally feel that the FA could have stopped Billy losing his life because they had so many warnings.”
The family cited the case of amateur footballer Ben Hiscox, who died in 2015 after colliding with a clubhouse near Bristol.
Following a coroner’s warning to the FA about the risk of similar deaths, padding was installed at Stoke Gifford United’s clubhouse and the distance between the pitch and the building was increased.
They also referred to the case of former Bath City player Alex Fletcher, who suffered a fractured skull after hitting concrete barriers at the club’s ground in 2022.
The injury eventually forced him to retire from football in 2024.
The FA conducted a review of clubs following Fletcher’s accident, but Camilla said she believed the information gathered was not acted upon.
“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,” she said.
The FA did not comment when asked by the BBC what action had been taken following the review.
Following Vigar’s death, the FA launched a safety assessment involving more than 900 clubs, with independent experts carrying out the review.
The governing body subsequently changed its stadium accreditation rules last month, removing permission for solid brick, breeze block or concrete barriers around pitches.
The BBC reported that 169 clubs in the men’s National League System and Women’s National League had been told to make changes “as soon as is reasonably practicable”.
Where walls are structurally necessary, they must now be fitted with suitable protection, including padding where appropriate. The FA and Premier League are providing funding to support the affected clubs.
The Vigars, however, want the safety regulations extended beyond the levels currently covered by the changes.
Keith Vigar said, “I work in the health and safety industry, and the main thing is you don’t go to work and expect to get injured, let alone even die at work in the workplace.”
He added, “It needs to change basically at all levels, not just at the levels that have changed.”
Fletcher, who has campaigned for improved pitch perimeter safety since his injury, also criticised the FA’s response.
He said the FA had “ignored” his efforts and added, “It wasn’t until Billy’s passing that [the FA] came to the table on this issue.”
“So for me, that is a complete dereliction of duty on their part, and there should be accountability for that failing,” Fletcher said.
He also called for the new regulations to cover every level of organised football, warning that unsafe pitch surroundings could remain elsewhere.
“There could be still situations where football is being played at some level, to some degree, organised football in this country, with these unsafe pitch perimeters. I would like to see that guidance, or the regulation, extended to consider all of football.”
Vigar joined Arsenal’s academy at 14 after being spotted while playing for Hove Rivervale in Sussex.
He spent almost seven years with the club before continuing his career elsewhere.
His former Chichester manager, Darin Kilpatrick, described him as a highly talented striker who had the potential to progress into the National League or English Football League.
“He was so coachable, he would run in behind, he would drop in short. His hold-up play was excellent and obviously he had an eye for a goal which all strikers have to have,” Kilpatrick said.
“To be fair, the way Bills was playing in his last couple of games that we had him, we would probably have only been able to keep him another six months before we moved him on into the higher levels where he belonged.”
Asked what level he believed Vigar could reach, Kilpatrick said, “He would have gone into the National League or [English] Football League, without a doubt.”
The Vigar family is awaiting an inquest into Billy’s death, which is expected to take place next year.
On the first anniversary of his death, his family planned to climb Snowdon with Billy’s siblings and the family of his girlfriend, Lois, as they continue to remember him.
