Sports25 September, 20263 min read
Billy Vigar’s Parents Say Football Association Could Have Prevented His Stadium Death
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Parents say the Football Association could have prevented Billy Vigar's death. The 21-year-old died from a brain injury after hitting a concrete pitch perimeter.
5 outlets told this the same way.
FA accused after death
Camilla Vigar told BBC Sport that she and her family “You swing from sadness to anger because you just feel it could have been prevented,” after her son Billy Vigar died a year ago today from a “significant brain injury” five days after colliding with a concrete wall surrounding a pitch. Billy Vigar, a 21-year-old striker who played for Chichester City at Wingate and Finchley FC in north London, died after the collision during a match and the Vigar family accused the Football Association of doing “nothing” after previous similar incidents. 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.”
“You swing from sadness to anger because you just feel it could have been prevented.”
The FA conducted a review of clubs after Alex Fletcher’s 2022 incident at Bath City, and the FA updated stadium criteria last month to remove permission for solid brick, breeze block or concrete barriers around pitches. The FA launched a safety review of more than 900 clubs and notified 169 clubs in the men’s National League System and women’s National League that they would need to make changes “as soon as is reasonably practicable.”
Warnings, then inaction
Camilla Vigar told BBC Sport that she personally felt the FA “could have stopped Billy losing his life because they had so many warnings.” Camilla Vigar said the FA provided no comment when asked by the BBC what was done with the information it had gathered after previous incidents, and she argued that “As far as I'm aware, nothing was done with that information and it just sat there.” Alex Fletcher said the FA had “ignored” his years of campaigning on pitch perimeter safety, and he told the BBC that “It wasn't until Billy's passing that [the FA] came to the table on this issue.”
The BBC reported that Bromsgrove Sporting near Birmingham said the changes were “completely understandable and long overdue,” and the club added that it was “grateful for the 100% funding from the FA.” Sheppey United in Kent told the BBC that “There is always an element of risk in all sports and they can't all be mitigated,” while describing the remedial works as “more a reactive response rather than a proactive one.”
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New rules and funding
The FA said its updated stadium accreditation criteria “no longer permits solid brick, breeze block or concrete barriers around pitches,” and the BBC reported that where walls are structural they must be “covered with suitable protection,” such as padding. Funding for the venue modifications is being provided by the FA and the Premier League, and the FA told clubs that any existing solid brick, breeze block or concrete barriers must be removed “as soon as reasonably practicable,” or covered with suitable protection if they cannot be removed for structural reasons. Bath City welcomed the ruling because it “recognises that funding needs to be available to support clubs to implement this fundamental change to the ground grading regulations.”
The Vigars and Fletcher urged the FA to extend safety regulations beyond the National League, and Keith Vigar said, “It needs to change basically at all levels, not just at the levels that have changed.” The FA said, “This important work is under way, and we will continue to fully support the clubs involved,” as it continued implementation across the 169 clubs notified to make changes.