The fu­ner­al ser­vice for for­mer T&T men’s 2006 World Cup squad equip­ment man­ag­er Ikin Williams, 68, who passed away last Tues­day, will take place to­day at St Mary’s RC Church, George Cabral Street, St James, from 9.30 am, fol­lowed by cre­ma­tion at Clark and Bat­to Cre­ma­to­ri­um at 11 Tra­garete Road, Port-of-Spain.

In a re­lease from the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) last week, it was stat­ed that, as the equip­ment man­ag­er of na­tion­al teams, in­clud­ing the 1989 Strike Squad, Williams ded­i­ca­tion and con­tri­bu­tions to T&T’s foot­ball lega­cy were in­valu­able.

The re­lease added, “His com­mit­ment to the po­si­tion of “kit­man” and the teams he served was ev­i­dent in every match and every cam­paign.

A St James res­i­dent, Williams was with the 1989 squad un­der Ever­ald ‘Gal­ly’ Cum­mings, as well as the team that reached the 2000 Gold Cup semi­fi­nals. He was al­so a mem­ber of the back­room staff at the 2006 World Cup Fi­nals in Ger­many.

Williams’ role as an equip­ment man­ag­er went far be­yond sim­ply han­dling gear and sup­plies. He was the un­sung hero be­hind the scenes, en­sur­ing that every play­er had what they need­ed to per­form at their best. From metic­u­lous­ly prepar­ing equip­ment for train­ing ses­sions to mak­ing sure every­thing was in per­fect or­der on game days, Ikin’s at­ten­tion to de­tail and un­wa­ver­ing sup­port were sec­ond to none. His abil­i­ty to an­tic­i­pate and meet the needs of the play­ers and coach­ing staff demon­strat­ed his gen­uine care for the team’s well-be­ing.

TTFA pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards added, “Please ac­cept my heart­felt con­do­lences. Ikin’s lega­cy will be re­mem­bered fond­ly, and his im­pact on the foot­ball com­mu­ni­ty will nev­er be for­got­ten. May you find com­fort in the mem­o­ries you shared and in know­ing the pos­i­tive in­flu­ence he had on so many lives through your ser­vice in foot­ball.”