“This is the under-16s at Arsenal, when Billy was playing up a year and they won the Liam Brady Cup,” Keith Vigar says, proudly pointing to a photograph hanging above the staircase at the family home in Storrington, West Sussex.“And this is Hove Rivervale, the team he was with when he got signed by Arsenal at the age of 14.”There are plenty of other lovely memories captured on a photoboard that tells the story of Billy’s football journey, including a picture of Keith and wife Camilla with their youngest son on the day he signed his first professional contract with Arsenal, and a leaping, clenched-fist goal celebration for Chichester City, the non-League club he joined last summer.“These photos were exactly like that at the funeral,” Camilla says.“These two,” she adds, gesturing to the picture boards on either side, “were just of Billy as well but we didn’t want it to be overpowering, so we’ve interspersed it since with photos of everybody.” One of those pictures shows Billy in a hot-air balloon with his girlfriend, Lois. Phoebe, Billy’s younger sister, is also there, along with Ollie, the eldest of three siblings, and his girlfriend, Laura.“That was in May last year. Lois was the keen one. Billy got in the balloon and he was petrified – he wouldn’t go near the edge at first!” Keith says, laughing.It’s a beautiful image of five young people chasing their dreams.
Lois (Billy’s girlfriend), Ollie (his brother), Laura (Ollie’s girlfriend), Phoebe (their sister) and Billy (The Vigar family)But it’s also an image that breaks your heart when you stop and think about the devastating circumstances that brought them all together again at St Mary’s Hospital in London, on a harrowing Saturday afternoon four months later.Billy had sustained a significant brain injury while playing for Chichester in an away match against Wingate & Finchley in Barnet, north London. Running for a ball close to the edge of the pitch, he fell to the ground under contact from one of the Wingate & Finchley players. Billy hit his head on a concrete-block perimeter wall that was just under three metres (a little less than 10ft) from the touchline.Keith and Camilla were on holiday in Croatia at the time. “We literally just stepped onto (the island of) Hvar and were waiting for a taxi to take us up to our apartment and got this phone call,” Keith explains. “It was Miles (Rutherford), the Chichester manager, saying, ‘It’s not good’.“The kids were straight up to London (Storrington is near Brighton). And I was thinking, ‘Blimey, is it that urgent?’ Because I just didn’t know. But they were immediately on the train and Ollie, bless him, just took control, really. He got everyone to the hospital — Phoebe, Lois, and Laura.”Keith and Camilla got the first flight home and arrived 24 hours later, by which point it was clear that Billy’s condition was critical. He was put into an induced coma. On the Tuesday, three days after suffering the injury, Billy underwent surgery.Forty-eight hours later, he passed away.Aged 21, Billy Vigar lost his life playing the game he loved.“Oh, tell him to get down,” Camilla says as Enzo, their one-year-old working cocker spaniel, jumps around excitedly at the door.It’s a warm summer afternoon in August, the sun beating down in a way that makes it far too hot to think about sitting outside. Keith and Camilla point the way through to the front of the house, past the hallway, where a framed Arsenal shirt has pride of place.The shirt has 75, Billy’s squad number, on the back and was signed by his academy team-mates when he left Arsenal in 2024, ending a seven-year association with the club that included loan spells at Derby County, then of third-tier League One, and non-League Eastbourne Borough.“Good luck, Bill” is written all over it.
The framed Arsenal shirt at the Vigars’ family home (The Vigar family)When Billy signed for Arsenal as a scholar at the age of 16, he lived with a host family in London. But ever since his release, he had been back at home in Storrington with his parents and siblings.Every day brings challenges for them all now. But some are harder than others.Keith explains how he is able to “compartmentalise” and “put things in boxes”, so much so that he suspects Camilla sometimes wonders whether “what has happened has really hit me properly”.“But you had a big moment,” Camilla says.Keith nods, thinking back to an afternoon in March, six months after Billy passed away, when he was at home.“I felt fine in the morning,” he explains. “But something was bubbling. I went into Billy’s room and just lay on his bed, and then I was in bits.”He glances across at Camilla, then continues, “We’re very different in the way that we deal with things. But we accept that. So that’s how, I guess, we get through, just day by day.“Billy’s in your memory constantly. Everything is looking for signs that he’s around, and you’re talking to him in your mind every day, which is comforting, to an extent. But it’s not easy by any means.”Camilla looks up with tears in her eyes. “I’m the opposite,” she says. “I do probably cry every day, but I find if I let it out, then it’s easier to put the face back on, if you like, and try to be normal. “We both said from the beginning that we’ve got two other living kids. So it can’t just be… I’m sorry,” she says, her voice cracking with emotion.Camilla pauses for a moment.“It can’t just be sadness because of Billy,” she continues, “because the other kids are still alive and you’ve got to keep going for them.“We didn’t want to be…”“Constantly bitter and constantly angry,” Keith says, finishing Camilla’s sentence. “It’s just not us.”It would be easy for them to be like that, though, and totally understandable too.“It is there (the anger), don’t get me wrong,” Camilla adds.There is a fragility to their lives, Keith explains, since Billy passed away. He talks about harbouring feelings of guilt for laughing at something and admits there were times when he worried what people might think if they saw him smiling in public.“It’s not like we never genuinely have a nice time, because you do,” Camilla adds. “But your baseline is sad, if that makes sense.”Ollie, Billy’s brother, has just returned home from travelling in Australia, after taking a sabbatical from work to escape for a while. As for Phoebe, Camilla says that Billy’s 19-year-old sister “hasn’t accepted it at all”.
Billy Vigar playing for Arsenal Under-18s in 2022 (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)Camilla wipes her eyes. “But it doesn’t just stop at our family. Lois’ family have been massively affected by it, because they’re now living with someone who’s permanently sad, or angry, on different days. And Billy was a big part of their family as well.”Lois and Billy were childhood sweethearts and had been in a relationship since the age of 16. They did everything together. On Sundays, he would often go to Lois’ parents’ house to watch football on television with her father and enjoy a beer with him.“For weeks afterwards, Lois’ dad still used to pour two glasses,” Camilla says.Lois still regularly visits the Vigars, staying over once a week. She will, they say, always be welcome at their house. “She struggles to sleep,” Keith adds. “Everyone is different,” Camilla says. “My way is to shut it out, so I go to sleep. Whereas Lois’ way is to hold on because she doesn’t want to wake up again and it’s one day further.”
Billy, Camilla, Ollie, Phoebe and Keith Vigar at home (The Vigar family)Four weeks ago, on the eve of the new non-League season, the English Football Association issued a statement saying it had banned pitchside perimeter walls made of solid brick, breeze-blocks or concrete, following a review carried out by independent health and safety experts.Previously, the FA’s ‘Stadium Accreditation Criteria’ for the National League System, which covers steps one to six of men’s football in England (tiers five to 10 in the pyramid, below the Premier League and the three divisions of the EFL), stated: ‘There must be a permanent fixed barrier… of sound construction (e.g. concrete and steel) and free from all sharp edges, surrounding the pitch on all sides that may be occupied by spectators.”Keith sighs. “Everyone’s saying, ‘Oh, you must be really pleased, it’s a great thing that this has been updated’. Well, yeah, great, but it’s too late for us. So I don’t think we’re really excited or pleased about it.”“We’re pleased for other people,” Camilla says. “It’s what needed to be done, but it doesn’t bring Billy back. If anything, it makes me even more angry with the FA because it shows how easily it could have been changed.”In a medical report that was sent to the coroner in north London last month, and which has been seen by The Athletic, Dr Anthony Bleetman writes: “Billy Vigar sustained a massive head injury which was caused by a single impact against a wall.
“Had the wall not been there, it is highly likely that this head injury would not have occurred. Had the collision (as seen on the video) occurred without the wall being where it was, it is an almost certainty that Billy Vigar would have sustained minor injuries only.”The warning signs about the dangers of pitchside perimeter walls had been there for years. In 2022, Alex Fletcher was left fighting for his life after being involved in a similar incident to Billy while playing for non-League Bath City, when he hit the back of his head on a breeze-block wall at their Twerton Park stadium. Fletcher suffered brain damage and multiple fractures to his skull, and later released photos of himself lying in a coma to raise awareness about the dangers of such pitchside walls.
Alex Fletcher in hospital after his serious accident playing for Bath City (Adrian Sherratt)The year before, Danny Clarke suffered a fractured skull and bleeding to the brain when he hit his head on a perimeter wall surrounding Barton Town’s pitch – another non-League club – during a game for North Ferriby.In 2015, Ben Hiscox died after falling backwards and banging his head on the clubhouse wall during an amateur game at Stoke Gifford, near Bristol.“Apparently, when Ben died and it went to a coroner’s inquest, the coroner then sent a letter to the FA,” Keith adds.That letter, which has been seen by The Athletic, was referenced in an article in December.“There is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken,” Terence Moore, then assistant coroner for the Avon area, wrote in his correspondence to the FA’s legal department. “I believe you (the FA) have the power to take such action.”The FA took measures to improve player safety at Stoke Gifford’s ground, with padded mats attached to the clubhouse wall and a greater distance created between it and the touchline of the pitch, and informed the coroner of those changes.But there are legitimate questions to ask about the FA’s wider response, both back then and also following Fletcher’s incident four years ago. In June 2023, in the wake of Fletcher’s accident, Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, effectively the trade union for players in England, wrote a joint letter, with the UK’s then sports minister, Stuart Andrew, to FA CEO Mark Bullingham, calling on the leagues (the FA oversees the National League System, as the non-League game is known) to “take a proactive approach… to help improve player safety”.The FA told The Athletic last year that it reviewed 890 non-League grounds after Fletcher’s head injury, yet it’s unclear how any of the information gathered during that research was used to address the PFA’s concerns. Perimeter walls made of brick, concrete and breeze-blocks remained in place all over the country and, tragically, Billy ended up losing his life.When asked by The Athletic what it did to improve player safety in response to the Molango/Andrew letter, the FA declined to comment.“That’s what makes me so angry,” Camilla says. “They (the FA) are such a big organisation that they can get away with not doing a lot. Obviously, we’ve got our grief, we’ve got grandparents’ grief, we’ve got siblings’ grief, Lois’ grief. But the biggest thing which makes me so angry is that Billy was 21.”Breaking down, she adds: “He had his whole life ahead of him.”
Billy’s parents Keith and Camilla at their home, talking to The Athletic (Stuart James)As someone who works in health and safety, Keith was taken aback when he read through the governing body’s Stadium Accreditation Criteria document, and pulled no punches when Andy Ambler, the director of professional game relations at the FA, visited the family at home last year.“I said to him, ‘What’s the purpose of this document? It’s absolutely rubbish’.” “I think your words were, ‘It’s a load of b******s’,” Camilla adds.“I did say that,” Keith says.“It’s obviously designed for back in the days when it was about trying to prevent spectators getting on the pitches. “It also said the barrier needs to be at least 1.83 metres (6ft) from the pitch,” alluding to the run-off distance, which varies depending on the level of the league and whether the stadium is a new-build. “I said, ‘Where does that distance come from?’” Keith adds.The suggestion, Camilla says, was that it had something to do with the average height of a person.“Nobody knows (for sure),” Keith adds. “But that’s what they (the FA) think it’s based on.”As Camilla points out, that distance doesn’t take into account speed or force.When Fletcher suffered his serious injury at Bath City’s stadium, the distance between the perimeter wall and the pitch was 15ft (4.57m).Camilla asked Ambler specifically about the FA’s response to that incident. “I said, ‘Well, what about Alex?’ His words to me were, ‘We saw it as a freak accident because of the distance.’ And I said, ‘Well, you could have looked at it as, if it could happen at four metres, what are the chances of it happening at less than two?’ But we were told that they can’t make that decision until they’ve done a lot of research.”Forced to retire from playing because of the injuries he sustained that day, Fletcher has been in regular contact with Keith and Camilla and also met up with them on a couple of occasions. In fact, he said something to Keith a little while ago that stopped him in his tracks.“Alex used the word ‘sacrificed’, and I’d never thought of that word,” Keith says. “But (he said he felt) it took Billy to sacrifice his life, or to be sacrificed, for something to change. That hit me – I found that word hard.”Camilla still questions whether anything would have changed but for Billy’s backstory. “I believe the only reason why the FA has had their hand forced is because of Billy’s history with Arsenal.” She shakes her head. “I’m working up to wishing, or hoping, that I’ve got the…”“Balls?” Keith says, smiling, as his wife searches for the right word.“Balls, yeah,” Camilla nods. “The balls to say, if we are asked at the inquest if we want to say anything, to say that I will never forgive the FA, because I genuinely think they could have stopped what happened.”
The photoboard at the Vigars’ home, left, and an Arsenal fan placing flowers below the mural of Billy near the Emirates Stadium last year (Stuart James; Mark Leech/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)In December last year, the coroner warned Keith and Camilla that the inquest into their son’s death “is not going to be a short process”. A second pre-inquest review is scheduled to take place in November.At the first hearing, the coroner asked the Metropolitan Police to examine “the nature of the contact between the two players involved” — a line of inquiry that came as a surprise, because there had never previously been a suggestion that there was anything untoward about contact between the Wingate & Finchley player and Billy (The Athletic understands that view hasn’t changed).What is clear is that Keith and Camilla’s search for answers is time-consuming, mentally draining and deeply frustrating, compounded by their grief and not helped by what feels like a lack of accountability.The FA insists that the health and safety of participants and spectators at National League System level is the responsibility of the clubs and their local authorities, yet the English game’s governing body sets the minimum requirements any club must meet in order for their ground to be accredited to stage a match — and that includes perimeter barriers and run-off distances.“This is the big problem when this first happened: where’s the accountability and the responsibility?” Keith asks. “Because the FA say it’s down to the local authority or the club itself, and they (the clubs and local authorities) say, ‘Well, we’re just working to the FA guidance’, and so you’ve got this never-ending circle.”Some of the dialogue with the relevant parties has added to the distress, including polite and repeated requests for updates or responses being ignored. Then there was the email Keith and Camilla received in February from the individual leading the investigation on behalf of Barnet Council at the time.“Late one afternoon, he sent me an update saying, ‘Just so you’re aware, this is where we’re at, but I’m leaving the organisation soon and so we’ll be passing on (the case)’,” Keith explains. “So I sent an email back the following morning, saying thanks for the update and asking a couple of questions. But he had gone already. He must have pressed send as he left the building.”
Wingate & Finchley removed the wall that once ran along the front of their stand and replaced it with this fencing (Wingate & Finchley)Even the recent FA statement about the perimeter wall changes was handled insensitively. According to Keith, he was in a counselling session when he received a message from Fletcher to say that he had been asked to give an interview in relation to the FA releasing details of their new non-League stadium criteria. The timing of that press release was news to the Vigars, who had no prior warning from the FA that it was being published that day — something they would have appreciated in order to forewarn family members of the likely media coverage. On top of that, Billy’s name was nowhere to be seen within the FA statement.“The only reason they’ve done this risk review is because Billy died,” Camilla says. “But it’s written as if they just decided to review it, which is a bit of an insult, really.”The Athletic gave the FA an opportunity to respond to the comments that Keith and Camilla made in this interview, and also asked the body several other questions about pitchside perimeter barriers, including the continued use of solid brick, concrete and breeze block walls in the wake of the incident involving Fletcher at Bath.An FA spokesperson said: “We were deeply saddened by the passing of Billy Vigar, and our thoughts and heartfelt condolences remain with his family, friends and loved ones.“Following the tragic incident, we announced an immediate review of the safety of perimeter walls around pitches across the National League System. Conducted by independent health and safety experts, this review led to changes to our stadium accreditation criteria for the 2026-27 season. As a result, solid brick, breeze-block and concrete barriers are no longer permitted around pitches across the National League System for men (Steps 1-6) and the Women’s National League (Tiers 3-4). Any existing solid brick, breeze-block or concrete barriers must be removed as soon as reasonably practicable, or covered with suitable protection if they cannot be removed for structural reasons.“This important work is underway, and we will continue to fully support the clubs involved.“We understand the devastating impact of Billy’s passing, and we remain fully committed to supporting clubs in making their stadiums and grounds as safe as possible.”In his kitchen, Keith holds up Chichester’s home and away shirts for the new season. The designs incorporate angel wings in a heart shape. On the back at the top, and also on a sleeve, are the words: ‘BV9, heaven has gained a striker’.“They’re lovely,” his father says. “They’re subtle, but they actually give an amazing memory and legacy of Billy.”
Tributes paid by Billy’s final club Chichester City (Chichester City)Billy was with Chichester for less than two months, but the relationship between his family and the club is truly special. They have been back to watch them play on a number of occasions since and, together with Lois, even attended their end-of-season awards night. As for the chairman Andy Bell, Keith is full of praise for the way in which he has handled everything with such care and respect.“When it first happened, they left it to us to say when we wanted them to start playing again – if we did (want them to start playing again),” Keith says. “They were happy not to play the whole season and just walk away from it, because it affected them that much. But I said that’s not going to be any good to anyone.” One man in particular at Chichester has touched their hearts. The first-team coach Darin Kilpatrick, more commonly known as Dabba, thought the world of Billy. He asked Keith and Camilla if he could write a poem, titled ‘The Humble 9’, and read it at the funeral. “It was incredible. I can’t thank him enough,” Camilla says. “He’s been affected so much by it. It’s like he’s family, isn’t it?”Keith nods. “As far as Chichester is concerned, they’re all like extended family now.”
The poem read at Billy’s funeral by Chichester coach Darin Kilpatrick“And Luca,” Camilla says.Luca is Luca Hodges-Ramon, who was Billy’s agent in his Arsenal days and remained close to the striker after his release from the club even if, in Keith’s words, there was nothing in it for him financially.When the incident happened at Wingate & Finchley, Hodges-Ramon went to the hospital immediately, offering support to Ollie, Laura, Lois and Phoebe, and he has been around for the family ever since. “He’s just been incredible,” Keith says.Tributes were paid to Billy by people across football, including Mikel Arteta. The Arsenal manager spoke 24 hours after Billy passed away and on the same day that the club’s under-21s played Derby, where a minute’s silence was held at that game between two of his former clubs. Staff and players also gathered to pay respect to Billy at Arsenal’s Hale End academy.
A tribute to Billy before Arsenal’s Champions League game against Olympiacos in October last year (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)Per Mertesacker, Billy’s former academy manager at Arsenal, invited the family to the club’s game against Everton in March, and Brighton, their local Premier League team, made a similar gesture.Others have more than played their part too, including the PFA and the wider football community. A GoFundMe page that was set up on the Vigars’ behalf raised £18,028, which is currently in a bank account and waiting to be used in Billy’s name in some way, shape or form.One or two teams were particularly thoughtful. Keith tells a story about Slough Town, who play in a division one level above Chichester, donating £400 to the club so that all of Billy’s team-mates could go out for dinner together.“We were so focused on Billy at the time and didn’t think about the impact it has on everyone else,” Keith says. “There were some really young players, 18- and 19-year-old kids, that were there with him at the time.”Talking to Keith and Camilla, you get the feeling that the response has been a bit overwhelming at times. In June, Keith was invited to present an award in Billy’s name at the presentation evening for the Isthmian League, a parallel regional competition to the Southern League that Chichester play in, to honour the ‘most sporting achievement of the season’.“I didn’t have to do it,” Keith says. “But if we hadn’t been there, it would have been, ‘This award is in memory of Billy Vigar, who sadly passed away’. I thought it’s more personable if I’m there, or we’re there. It got announced, and they said, ‘We’ve got Billy Vigar’s dad here tonight’, and so I got up to walk up on stage and everyone stood up and applauded. And that’s weird. I’m not a celebrity. I’m not famous.”“That was for support of you, though, wasn’t it?” Camilla says.“I get that,” Keith replies. “But it just carried on and on. I had to say, ‘Can we stop now, please!’”The invites, thoughtful gestures and kind words are always appreciated by the Vigars. But, as Camilla says with a deep sense of sadness in her voice, “It doesn’t bring Billy back.”Grief has no end date, and Keith and Camilla know there are more difficult days to come. “It’s getting through all the firsts, that’s the initial thing,” Keith says. “A few weeks after Billy passed away it was his birthday, then the funeral happened, then it was Christmas, then Easter, when we all used to get together as a family, and the next big one is obviously the first anniversary.”That’s on September 25, when the Vigars and Lois’ family have decided to go away together. “One thing Billy and Lois wanted to do was climb Snowdon (the highest mountain in England and Wales). So we thought this might be the right time to do that,” Keith says.In the meantime, conversations continue about Billy’s legacy and what that might look like, beyond the fact that every non-League footballer across the country will be playing the game in a much safer environment in the future. “I get asked now and again, ‘What do you want? What are you trying to achieve?’” Keith says. “In a way, I haven’t had time to really contemplate it, and that’s why you need support. I can’t believe it’s nearly a year. But that’s also quite a long time in a lot of people’s minds. Some could think, ‘Surely you know where you are by now and what you’re doing’. I haven’t even caught my breath with what’s happened.” One of the ideas currently being considered is to set up an injury rehabilitation centre in Billy’s name, based at Chichester’s ground, for non-League players who either don’t have access to specialist physiotherapy treatment or aren’t able to afford it. For the moment, though, all their focus is on the inquest and the hope that they will eventually get an answer to the question that never goes away.“We’re holding out, to an extent, for the coroner’s report,” Keith says. “He’s got a lot of power to do something. But will he?“And if he doesn’t do what we hope and put pressure on the FA even more, how are we going to feel then and what’s going to happen next?”Asked what they would like the coroner to say, Keith replies: “We want justice. We want to know why Billy had to lose his life for anything to happen.”