Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales had shared his two cents on the vandalism of Howard's entry. RT.com noted that although Wales' tweet on July 2 showed his disapproval of vandalism, he was nonetheless amused.
FIFA.com said that despite the tragedy befallen on the rising Atletico Nacional star. the Escobars had not turned their back on football. Family members had attended each of the Colombian team's matches in the World Cup and sported a "Cafeteros" kit with the number two and their surname on the back. According to them, they are simply reminding everyone what appeared to be Escobar's message in the newspaper "El Tiempo" to his home country five days after his death: "Life doesn't stop here."
FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer read out a statement by FIFA director of security Ralf Mutschke at a briefing at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which said, "The article has put the integrity of FIFA World Cup matches in question, which is a serious allegation."
The paper's Telegraph Sport had seen screengrabs of a series of conversations between Perumal and the German journalist who had written the story on Facebook and noted that the exchanges took place just after the game. Perumal has since denied that he had talked to the journalist between June 11 and 20.
