Football Association Bans Solid Walls Around Pitches

The Football Association has moved to outlaw solid perimeter walls around pitches across large swathes of the English game, a decisive response to the tragedy that claimed the life of former Arsenal youth player Billy Vigar.

Vigar, 21, died after suffering a “significant brain injury” while playing for Chichester City at Wingate and Finchley FC in September 2025. He is believed to have collided with a concrete wall at the side of the pitch. What had long been treated as a quirk of non-league grounds suddenly stood exposed as a fatal flaw.

Now the FA has drawn a hard line.

Concrete out of the game

Following a safety review commissioned in the wake of Vigar’s death, independent health and safety experts have ruled that solid brick, breeze block and concrete barriers will no longer be permitted around pitches across the National League system for men (steps 1-6) and the Women’s National League (tiers 3-4) from the 2026-27 season.

In a firm directive, the FA stated: “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.

“We have informed the clubs at this level that will be required to take action as a result of these changes.”

This is not a cosmetic tidy-up. It is a structural overhaul of the touchline environment at hundreds of grounds, from promotion hopefuls in the National League down to community clubs fighting to stay afloat.

Playing on under a deadline

Clubs will not be forced to shut their gates while they adapt. Matches at affected grounds can continue, but only under clear conditions: they must continually assess the safety of their pitch perimeter barriers and put in place plans to make the required changes “within a reasonable timeframe”.

The message is blunt. Football can carry on. The walls cannot.

To help clubs meet those demands, the FA and Premier League will provide funding to support the alterations. For many non-league sides, where every capital project is a balancing act, that backing will be crucial. The cost of ripping out concrete and rebuilding perimeters is not trivial; the cost of doing nothing has already been laid bare.

A petition that refused to fade

After Vigar’s death, a petition calling for a ban on brick walls around football pitches gathered momentum, drawing more than 4,000 signatures. It became a focal point for anger and grief, a simple question posed to the game’s authorities: how could hard walls still frame a playing area in an era obsessed with marginal gains and athlete welfare?

Pressure did not come from supporters alone. In June 2023, the government and the Professional Footballers’ Association wrote jointly to the FA, Premier League, English Football League and National League, urging a more proactive stance on player safety in this specific area.

Those letters asked for leadership. The FA’s ruling, at last, provides it.

The sport cannot turn back the clock for Billy Vigar. But from the top of the non-league pyramid to the heart of the women’s game, every concrete wall that comes down will stand as a stark reminder of why this change arrived, and why it should never have been needed in the first place.