Our son's death could have been prevented by FA, say parents of Billy Vigar
The parents of Billy Vigar, a 21-year-old footballer who died from a brain injury after colliding with a concrete wall, accuse the Football Association of failing to act on previous safety warnings. Following the incident, the FA launched a safety review that resulted in updated stadium criteria prohibiting solid concrete barriers around pitches. Consequently, 169 clubs in the National League System have been notified that they must modify their grounds with protective padding or other safety measures.
- ▪Billy Vigar died from a significant brain injury five days after colliding with a concrete wall at Wingate and Finchley FC.
- ▪The Vigar family claims the FA ignored prior warnings from similar incidents involving players Ben Hiscox and Alex Fletcher.
- ▪The FA has updated its stadium accreditation criteria to no longer permit solid brick, breeze block, or concrete barriers around pitches.
- ▪169 clubs in the men's and women's National League systems have been required to make safety modifications as soon as reasonably practicable.
- ▪Funding for the necessary remedial works is being provided jointly by the FA and the Premier League.
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| Original publisher | BBC News — UK |
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| Publication time | Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:25:29 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-25T06:20:28.647Z |
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Our son's death could have been prevented by FA - Billy Vigar's parents<div class="ssrcss-1ogevb9-ErrorMessage eitf6465"><div class="ssrcss-h7lv7m-StyledInnerContainer eitf6464"><div class="ssrcss-nbxsk2-TextContent eitf6461"><h2 type="normal" class="ssrcss-vmnb6q-Heading e10rt3ze0">To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.</h2><p class="ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10">This video can not be played</p></div></div></div>Figure caption, Billy Vigar's parents speak about their sonByLaura ScottSports news correspondentPublished53 minutes ago"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",…
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