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

Billy Vigar’s parents told BBC Sport that the Football Association could have prevented their son’s death after he sustained a "significant brain injury" when he collided with a concrete wall while playing for Chichester City at Wingate and Finchley FC in north London one year ago today. In the family’s first broadcast interview since his death they accused the FA of doing "nothing" after earlier incidents raised similar safety concerns.

Vigar, a 21-year-old striker, died five days after the collision on 25 September 2025, the family said. At the time of the accident the FA’s stadium accreditation criteria for the National League System in men’s football and the Women’s National League required clubs to have a "permanent" barrier around the pitch "of sound construction (eg concrete and steel)". Following Vigar’s death the FA commissioned an independent safety review of more than 900 clubs and last month updated the stadium criteria so it "no longer permits solid brick, breeze block or concrete barriers around pitches".

Camilla Vigar said: "You swing from sadness to anger because you just feel it could have been prevented." She added: "[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," and: "I personally feel that the FA could have stopped Billy losing his life because they had so many warnings." The family pointed to earlier cases including Ben Hiscox, who died in 2015 after colliding with a clubhouse near Bristol, where padding and increased run-off were later added at Stoke Gifford United after a coroner’s warning, and Alex Fletcher, who fractured his skull in 2022 at Bath City and was forced to retire in 2024; the FA carried out a review after Fletcher’s injury. Camilla said: "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." The BBC asked the FA what it had done with the information; the FA provided no comment.

The BBC was told 169 clubs in the men’s National League System and the Women’s National League were notified they would need to make changes "as soon as is reasonably practicable" and that where walls are structural they must be "covered with suitable protection", such as padding. The FA said: "This important work is under way, and we will continue to fully support the clubs involved." The FA and the Premier League are providing funding for the remedial work, the BBC reported.

Clubs contacted by BBC Sport expressed differing views on the changes. Bromsgrove Sporting, which has a concrete wall surrounding its pitch, described the measures as "completely understandable and long overdue" and said: "We are fully supportive of this and are grateful for the 100% funding from the FA," adding the club had been given a deadline of the end of this season and that "being high risk it would be good to complete this side of Christmas." Sheppey United, which has a concrete supporting wall around two sides of its 3G pitch that will be covered in padding, said: "There is always an element of risk in all sports and they can't all be mitigated, unfortunately in this instance the remedial works are more a reactive response rather than a proactive one. If the funding wasn't in place I think it would make it difficult for some clubs to fund this." Bath City, where Fletcher’s incident occurred, told BBC Sport: "We welcome the ruling as it seeks to improve player safety and recognises that funding needs to be available to support clubs to implement this fundamental change to the ground grading regulations."

Vigar was scouted playing for Hove Rivervale in Sussex and joined Arsenal’s academy aged 14, spending almost seven years at the club. His father said: "It was just an amazing feeling," and: "Sort of like your son's been chosen. And I'd always promised him a decent pair of football boots if he joined an academy. So yeah, since then it's cost me a fortune." The family said injuries followed and Vigar was recuperating from one such setback while playing for Chichester City, where manager Darin Kilpatrick said: "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. 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 was aiming for with Billy, Kilpatrick said: "He would have gone into the National League or [English] Football League, without a doubt." Keith Vigar said of watching football since the death: "It did become less important, far less important to start with, the struggle to get back into it," and: "When we went to see Chichester in that sense, first off, it's hard because you're just thinking, 'Billy should be out there, Billy should be playing' and that sort of thing. That's been hard." The family said Chichester FC have been "amazing" and have produced a kit making moving but subtle references to their son.

The Vigars have called for wider regulation and are awaiting an inquest, which is likely to take place next year. 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," and added: "It needs to change basically at all levels, not just at the levels that have changed." Alex Fletcher also urged broader application of the new rules, saying: "It wasn't until Billy's passing that [the FA] came to the table on this issue," and: "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."

Today, as the family marks the one-year anniversary of Billy’s accident, they plan to climb Snowdon with their children Phoebe and Ollie and the family of Billy's girlfriend Lois. "I think it just gives us something to focus on and gives us a challenge to do," Keith Vigar said. "And I know he'd have liked to do that. I'm sure he will be with us somewhere, looking over us in some way or form, having a laugh at us, no doubt, in the rain."