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<\/p>\nThere was an air of emptiness and despair at Chichester City Football Club on Friday afternoon as people arrived to pay tribute to Billy Vigar, the 21-year-old who died following an accident on a football pitch.<\/p>\n
Chichester City announced on Thursday that Vigar had passed away after sustaining a \u201csignificant brain injury\u201d during their away fixture against Wingate & Finchley in Barnet, north London, on Saturday, September 20.<\/p>\n
More than two dozen bouquets of flowers lay outside Oaklands Park come Friday evening, with the club\u2019s home shirt hanging above the floral tributes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may be gone from the pitch, but you\u2019ll never be gone from our hearts,\u201d read one of the cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t believe we are doing this. Such a young and talented player. Heaven has gained a striker,\u201d read another.<\/p>\n
In Thursday\u2019s statement, the club said the former Arsenal academy striker was \u201cput in an induced coma\u201d and, on Tuesday, \u201cneeded an operation to aid any chances of recovery\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough this helped, the injury proved too much for him and he passed away on Thursday,\u201d their statement added. \u201cHis family are devastated that this has happened whilst he was playing the sport that he loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was also a card \u2014 addressed to \u201cBilly\u2019s family\u201d \u2014 from \u201cthe staff who support Chi City FC from St Richard\u2019s Hospital\u201d.<\/p>\n
After reading the tributes, a friend of Vigar\u2019s poignantly touched the shirt and stood still for a handful of minutes before walking to the pitch.<\/p>\n
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Tributes are paid to Billy Vigar at Chichester City (Dan Sheldon)<\/p>\n
Vigar\u2019s death will spark wider questions around player safety, three years on from a similar incident that almost led to the death of Bath City\u2019s Alex Fletcher.<\/a><\/p>\n Vigar was playing on a football pitch surrounded by a concrete perimeter and sustained a fatal brain injury, with Headway UK \u2014 a charity that specialises in improving life after brain injuries \u2014 saying Vigar \u201creportedly collided with a wall at the side of the pitch\u201d.<\/p>\n Luke Griggs, the brain charity\u2019s chief executive, added: \u201cThis is a moment that will unite the football world, all fans and those in the game will no doubt register the shock of a player dying as a result of a collision with a concrete wall at the side of a football pitch.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the second such incident in the last few years, with Alex Fletcher of Bath City experiencing career-ending injuries through a similar incident.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Bath City forward Fletcher retired from football at the age of 25, over a year after a collision with a concrete advertising hoarding left him in intensive care and requiring emergency brain surgery in November 2022.<\/p>\n Fletcher has since been working for the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association (PFA), the players\u2019 union, to campaign for changes inside stadiums that would prevent a repeat of the incident that left him fighting for his life.<\/p>\n Following Vigar\u2019s death, the English Football Association (FA) announced on Friday that it will \u201cconduct an immediate review that will focus on the safety of perimeter walls and boundaries around pitches in the National League System\u201d.<\/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 the FA statement added.<\/p>\n Maheta Molango, chief executive of the PFA, called for a \u201cformal investigation into the incident that has led to Billy Vigar\u2019s tragic death\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAll footballers should expect to be safe when they go out to play or train, and to not be put at unnecessary and avoidable risk by factors beyond their control,\u201d Molongo said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we previously highlighted potential safety issues in grounds and stadiums, the sports minister and I wrote to all the football authorities to urge them to be proactive on this and to make sure all their rules and regulations around player safety were fit for purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n Chichester City and Wingate & Finchley play in the Isthmian League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football, and, unlike in professional football, paramedics are not required to be on site. The fixtures are usually watched by hundreds of people, as opposed to thousands.<\/p>\n At Wingate & Finchley\u2019s previous home game, against Hashtag United on September 9, for example, 193 supporters were in attendance, with their home game against Whitehawk in August attracting 157 spectators.<\/p>\n A London Ambulance Service (LAS) spokesperson told The Athletic that the initial emergency call on Saturday was made at 3.15pm, when they were informed of a \u201cperson injured\u201d.<\/p>\n Such was the concern regarding the injury, LAS confirmed it dispatched two ambulance crews, a paramedic in a fast response car, an incident response officer and an air ambulance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first paramedic arrived in around four minutes,\u201d a spokesperson for LAS said. \u201cWe treated a patient at the scene and took him to a major trauma centre by road.\u201d<\/p>\n As they begin to process what happened last weekend, Chichester City announced their league match against Lewes, due to take place on Saturday afternoon, would be postponed, while Wingate & Finchley\u2019s fixture against Canvey Island has been called off.<\/p>\n Vigar joined Arsenal\u2019s academy aged 14, having been scouted at Hove Rivervale, an amateur club based in Hove, Sussex, and quickly stood out, scoring 17 goals in his first season.<\/p>\n He earned a scholarship at Arsenal, who said they are \u201cdevastated by the shocking news\u201d of his death, and signed a professional contract with the Premier League side in July 2022.<\/p>\n Vigar was in the same academy intake as Omari Hutchinson, Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Charlie Patino, among others, with all three of those players paying tribute to their former team-mate.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s probably the most low-maintenance footballer I\u2019ve ever worked with.\u201d Dan Micciche, who coached Vigar for Arsenal\u2019s under-15s, under-16s and under-18s, told The Athletic.<\/p>\n Billy Vigar, second from the left, in action for Arsenal Under-18s in 2022 (David Price\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just so polite and respectful at all times, not just now and again. I know it\u2019s easy for people to say these things when people have gone, but it\u2019s the honest truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Such was Vigar\u2019s desire to develop at Arsenal, he commuted from Brighton to Hale End, a journey that can often take upwards of two hours, to attend the evening training sessions.<\/p>\n \u201cMyself and the academy leadership team organised for him to stay in a hotel a couple of nights a week and do his education at Hale End to minimise the travel,\u201d Micciche added.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just such an easy-going person. Never complained, never moaned. If he did challenge anything, he always did it in the right way. Respectful, soft manner. He\u2019s basically a mirror of what his parents are like, personality-wise. He was an absolute pleasure to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tunnel Remembers: Billy Vigar 2003-2025 \ud83d\udc94\ud83e\udd0d #Arsenal<\/a> #StreetArt<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/2jWPss6Tvp<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1363424649-scaled.jpg\")
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