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.
Striker Vigar, 21, died on Thursday after sustaining a “significant brain injury” while playing for Chichester City at Wingate and Finchley FC last Saturday.
It is thought the injury was caused when he collided with a concrete wall, but the club have not confirmed this.
A petition calling for a ban on brick walls around football pitches has received more than 4,000 signatures.
An FA statement said: “We 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.
“This 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.”
Earlier on Friday the Professional Footballers’ Association called for a full investigation and said that players should “not be put at unnecessary and avoidable risk”.
PFA chief executive Maheta Molango said in a statement it was vital to ensure “opportunities to make grounds safer for players have not been missed”.
He added: “All of our thoughts right now are with Billy’s family and friends, and providing whatever support we can to them.
“All footballers should expect to be safe when they go out to play or train.”
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.
That came after Bath City’s Alex Fletcher suffered a fractured skull after colliding with a concrete advertising hoarding during a match in November 2022.
“This tragedy is even harder to bear, knowing that the warnings were there,” Luke Griggs, chief executive of brain injury charity Headway, told BBC Sport.
“Action has to be taken and we can’t sit back and allow this to happen again.”
Griggs called on football’s largest stakeholders to help fund alterations to grounds lower down in the pyramid.
“It would need a collaboration with the FA, PFA, local authorities, and sponsors to actually help these clubs to make the changes that are needed,” he added.
“In the interim we’ve got to be looking at creative solutions by having all those concrete walls padded.
“The amount of money that’s in football – 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.”
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.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “Hopefully they can understand how it happened, and why it happened, and obviously try to avoid this kind of thing.
“It is shocking news. Straight away you’re thinking about the family, and how difficult it is to go through something like this in a very unexpected way.
“Hopefully they can understand how it happened, and why it happened, and obviously try to avoid this kind of thing.
“Really sad news, and our thoughts are with the family and all his loved ones.”
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15 August
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