The Soccer Affiliation has banned strong perimeter partitions round pitches after a security assessment was launched following the dying of former Arsenal youth participant Billy Vigar.
The 21-year-old died after sustaining a “significant brain injury” whereas enjoying for Chichester Metropolis at Wingate and Finchley FC in September 2025.
It’s thought the damage was brought on when he collided with a concrete wall.
The assessment, performed by impartial well being and security consultants for the 2026-27 season, mentioned it “not permits strong brick, breeze block or concrete obstacles round pitches throughout the Nationwide League system for males [steps 1-6], and the Ladies’s Nationwide League [tiers 3-4]”.
An FA assertion added: “Any present strong brick, breeze block or concrete obstacles should be eliminated as quickly as fairly practicable, or lined with appropriate safety in the event that they can’t be eliminated for structural causes.
“We have now knowledgeable the golf equipment at this degree that will likely be required to take motion on account of these modifications.”
Matches at affected grounds can proceed so long as golf equipment assess “the protection of their pitch perimeter obstacles on an ongoing foundation” and plan to make modifications “inside an inexpensive timeframe”.
The FA and Premier League will present funding to facilitate the modifications.
After Vigar’s dying, a petition calling for a ban on brick partitions round soccer pitches has obtained greater than 4,000 signatures.
The federal government and the Skilled Footballers’ Affiliation wrote to the FA, Premier League, English Soccer League and Nationwide League in June 2023, calling on them to undertake a extra proactive method to participant security on this space.
That got here after Tub Metropolis’s Alex Fletcher suffered a fractured skull after colliding with a concrete promoting hoarding throughout a match in November 2022.
