West Ham defender Kurt Zouma has lost his sponsorship deal with Adidas after being caught kicking and slapping his pet cat in a video.
Zouma, 27, has been fined £250,000 by West Ham while his two cats have been seized by the RSPCA following the sickening video which was initially posted on Snapchat by his brother Yoan.
West Ham manager David Moyes controversially decided to play Zouma in his side’s 1-0 victory over Watford on Tuesday evening, although the French defender was booed by both sets of supporters during the game.
Vitality has already announced that it has suspended its sponsorship deal with West Ham following Zouma’s actions.
But now Adidas has confirmed that its own deal with Zouma, which began last year, will be terminated in response to the video.
A statement from Adidas read: “We have concluded our investigation and can confirm Kurt Zouma is no longer an adidas contracted athlete.”
Adidas had earlier said: “No animal should be subject to cruel and unwarranted abuse.”
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In a statement released on Wednesday, West Ham claimed that Zouma is ‘extremely remorseful’ and is ‘co-operating fully’ with the RSPCA’s investigation.
“West Ham United can confirm that the club is supporting an RSPCA investigation into the actions of Kurt Zouma in the video circulated online this week,” the statement read.
“Kurt and the club are co-operating fully with the investigation and the player has willingly complied with the steps taken in the initial stage of the process, including delivering his family’s two cats to the RSPCA for assessment. Kurt is extremely remorseful and, like everyone at the club, fully understands the depth of feeling surrounding the incident and the need for action to be taken.
“Separate to the RSPCA’s investigation and pending further sanction once the outcome of that process is determined, West Ham United can confirm that Kurt Zouma has been fined the maximum amount possible following his actions in the video that circulated. The player has immediately accepted the fine, which both he and the club agreed will be donated to animal welfare charities.
“West Ham United would like to reiterate our condemnation of Kurt’s actions and make it clear that the matter continues to be handled with the utmost seriousness. However, we believe it is now important to allow the RSPCA to conduct their investigation in a fair and thorough manner, and will be making no further comment at this stage.”
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COMMENTS
Hypocrites, because he is a black man,u people eat all kinds of meat,do bull sports where bulls are killed in Spain,do trophy hunting ,give hunters licence to shoot animals dead and draw the line on cats and dogs,shame on you people called whites.
You d help me see their lives? If you no live among these people you won’t know what they are! Even those in high places secretly condone and act racist towards their Fellow humans like all darker peoples… but see how they want to bring down heaven for cat… even though it may have been a one off incident and yes Zuma made a mistake, people make such mistakes daily but away from the flare of social media. Poor guy… this must be a rude shock for him!
I really can’t believe that that for cat human risk being imprisoned for goodness sake cat is an animal.besides he is sorry why the charge rejection by adidas
Absolutely spot on @ Michel. These people are the worst bunch of hypocrites. But it isn’t about a white thing in general, as loads of whites are condemning this foolishness of fake love for animals. Same ones talking of protecting animals are everyday abusing/supporting killing of humans either directly or indirectly. Even regarding this issue, some are advocating he gets sacked n encouraging other clubs not to sign him forgetting Kurt may have children, siblings n many others surviving off him. Now isn’t that indirectly killing those dependants? @ Michel, You didn’t even mention most them defiling themselves with dogs, horses, pigs etc thus corrupting same animals ala pets. What about all their paedophilic men n women abusing innocent kids. Anyone ever trusting these lots is having some serious gig in fools paradise. These media world over has become the biggest weapon in the hand of Satan to constantly brainwash the gullible, reason in the Bible, we read, “WHOSE REPORT DO WE BELIEVE? THAT OF MEN(MEDIA/GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTION) OR GOD. Truth is I don’t support violence in whatever form, so I totally accept Kurt or anybody should not be doing what he did but these lots are blowing the whole things out of proportion,just like the self righteous Pharisees did in condemning that prostitute in front of OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Cat na correct meat for some areas in China, Vietnam and the two Koreas.
Dem dey lem cat meat wella for those areas. Na real delicacy.
Adidas should boycott these countries 🙂 🙂 🙂
Anyways, much respect to this cat. It has more influence than many of the world’s political and business leaders.
3 GBOSAS for it. Or shall we say 3 MIAOWS?