{"id":96030,"date":"2025-09-27T10:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96030"},"modified":"2025-09-27T10:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:24:07","slug":"fa-in-immediate-safety-review-after-vigar-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96030","title":{"rendered":"FA in immediate safety review after Vigar death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 55 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\n

The Football Association says it will carry out an immediate safety review of perimeter walls at football grounds in the National League system after the death of former Arsenal youth player Billy Vigar.<\/p>\n

Striker Vigar, 21,\u00a0died on Thursday\u00a0after sustaining a \u201csignificant brain injury\u201d while playing for Chichester City at Wingate and Finchley FC last Saturday.<\/p>\n

It is thought the injury was caused when he collided with a concrete wall, but the club have not confirmed this.<\/p>\n

A petition calling for a ban on brick walls around football pitches has received more than 4,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

An FA statement said: \u201cWe will now conduct an immediate review, working with leagues, clubs and relevant stakeholders across the game, that will focus on the safety of perimeter walls and boundaries around pitches in the National League system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will include looking at ways we can assist National League system clubs to identify and implement additional measures at their stadiums that they determine will help to mitigate any potential safety risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association called for a full investigation and said that players should \u201cnot be put at unnecessary and avoidable risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

PFA chief executive Maheta Molango said in a statement it was vital to ensure \u201copportunities to make grounds safer for players have not been missed\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAll of our thoughts right now are with Billy\u2019s family and friends, and providing whatever support we can to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll footballers should expect to be safe when they go out to play or train.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government and the PFA wrote to the FA, the Premier League, the English Football League and the National League in June 2023 calling on them to adopt a more proactive approach to player safety in this area.<\/p>\n

That came after Bath City\u2019s\u00a0Alex Fletcher suffered a fractured skull\u00a0after colliding with a concrete advertising hoarding during a match in November 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tragedy is even harder to bear, knowing that the warnings were there,\u201d Luke Griggs, chief executive of brain injury charity Headway, told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cAction has to be taken and we can\u2019t sit back and allow this to happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griggs called on football\u2019s largest stakeholders to help fund alterations to grounds lower down in the pyramid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would need a collaboration with the FA, PFA, local authorities, and sponsors to actually help these clubs to make the changes that are needed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the interim we\u2019ve got to be looking at creative solutions by having all those concrete walls padded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of money that\u2019s in football \u2013 this cannot be something that is allowed to just pass by people, to pass the buck on it. We need people to step forward and take ownership for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vigar was a graduate of the Arsenal academy, leaving the club in 2024, and also had spells at Derby County, Eastbourne Borough and Hastings United.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: \u201cHopefully they can understand how it happened, and why it happened, and obviously try to avoid this kind of thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is shocking news. Straight away you\u2019re thinking about the family, and how difficult it is to go through something like this in a very unexpected way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully they can understand how it happened, and why it happened, and obviously try to avoid this kind of thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally sad news, and our thoughts are with the family and all his loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\"FAThe Football Association says it will carry out an immediate safety review of perimeter walls at football grounds in the National League system after the death of former Arsenal youth player Billy Vigar.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9382,9383,137,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billy-vigar","category-english-fa","category-football","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}