FA bans solid walls around pitches after youth player’s fatal injury

After 21-year-old Billy Vigar suffered a severe brain injury that proved fatal when he struck a concrete wall during a match for Chichester City at Wingate and Finchley, the Football Association commissioned an independent health-and-safety review for the 2026-27 season. The review concluded that solid brick, breeze-block or concrete barriers must no longer be permitted around pitches in the men’s National League system and the Women’s National League’s third and fourth tiers.

Clubs are instructed to dismantle such walls as soon as reasonably possible, or to cover them with protective material if removal is structurally impossible, and to continually monitor perimeter safety. The FA and Premier League will provide financial assistance for the required upgrades. The policy shift responds to a petition that has gathered more than 4,000 signatures and to letters from the government and the Professional Footballers' Association, which previously highlighted the danger after Bath City’s Alex Fletcher fractured his skull on a concrete advertising hoarding in 2022.