Billy Vigar's parents say FA could have prevented son's death

A year ago, in September 2025, 21-year-old Billy Vigar, a former Arsenal academy player then with Chichester City, died from a serious brain injury five days after colliding with a concrete wall surrounding the pitch during a match against Wingate and Finchley in north London.

In their first broadcast interview since his death, Vigar's parents accuse the Football Association of doing nothing despite previous similar incidents. His mother, Camilla, points to the case of amateur player Ben Hiscox, who died in 2015 after colliding with a clubhouse near Bristol — after which the club added padding and increased the run-off distance following a coroner's warning.

The family also cites the life-changing injury suffered by Alex Fletcher in 2022, who fractured his skull colliding with concrete barriers at Bath City's ground and was forced to retire in 2024. The FA reviewed clubs after that incident, but Camilla Vigar says the information gathered was never acted upon — and that Wingate and Finchley had reportedly been flagged as a high-risk club at the time.

When asked what was done with the information, the FA gave no comment. Following Vigar's death, the FA launched a safety review of more than 900 clubs conducted by independent experts. As a result, stadium accreditation criteria were updated last month, no longer permitting solid brick, breeze block or concrete pitch barriers. Some 169 clubs across the men's and women's national leagues have been told to make changes as soon as reasonably practicable, with funding provided by the FA and Premier League.

Several affected clubs, including Bromsgrove Sporting and Bath City, welcomed the changes, though some described them as a reactive rather than proactive response. The Vigar family and Fletcher are calling for the rules to be extended to lower levels of the game, arguing the FA's earlier inaction amounts to a dereliction of duty. The family is awaiting an inquest expected next year, and marked the anniversary by climbing Snowdon with relatives in Billy's memory.