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A senior club official at the football club where ex-Arsenal academy prospect Billy Vigar suffered fatal injuries during a match last Saturday has been hit by death threats.
The 21-year-old died on Thursday after suffering a 'significant brain injury' when he collided with a pitchside wall while playing for Chichester City away at Wingate and Finchley in an Isthmian League Premier Division match.
The young striker was placed in a coma and operated on by doctors in a desperate bid to save his life on Tuesday, but 'the injury proved too much for him', his devastated club said.
It’s understood that the tragedy happened when Vigar was attempting to prevent the ball from crossing the touchline after 13 minutes. The match was abandoned after an air ambulance had arrived to treat the player.
Tributes have poured in from the football community, including his former club Arsenal, and a petition has started calling for a new regulation, or 'Vigar's Law', to force clubs to take down brick walls near touchlines. The petition has already garnered more than 5,600 signatures at the time of writing.
A senior figure at Wingate and Finchley, visibly shocked and emotional about the tragedy and unwilling to identify himself, told Daily Mail Sport on Friday morning: ‘I’ve received death threats, I feel under threat.
A senior official at Wingate and Finchley Football Club says he has received death threats
The football club are in mourning following the death of their player, Billy Vigar (pictured)
‘My son has, too. It’s terrible, there’s a poor lad and his family at the centre of this. Everyone is coming at me and blaming us for what’s happened.
‘We are all grieving here. What we all do is voluntary. I do a lot in this community, you can ask around, and this is just awful.’
Shocked neighbours described the chaotic scenes around the club. A neighbour across the road from the pitch told Daily Mail Sport: ‘I saw three ambulances, a police car and an air ambulance arrive.
‘People were slowly leaving the ground after but the rugby match (on the adjacent pitch) continued.
‘I knew something big had happened when I saw the air ambulance as Barnet hospital is just down the road. It’s so sad and tragic.’
The Chichester City statement read: ‘After sustaining a significant brain injury last Saturday, Billy Vigar was put in an induced coma. On Tuesday, he needed an operation to aid any chances of recovery. Although this helped, the injury proved too much for him and he passed away on Thursday morning.
‘The responses to the original update show how much Billy was thought of and loved within the sport. His family are devastated that this has happened whilst he was playing the sport he loved.’
Vigar was an academy graduate at Hale End, joining aged 14, and featured prominently for Arsenal’s Under 18 and Under 21 sides before his exit in the summer of 2024.
Daily Mail Sport understands that current players in the Arsenal academy who played with Vigar have been left shaken by the tragedy.
