Zouma gets a kicking
Disgraced defender fined £250,000 and dropped by sponsor
THE backlash over Kurt Zouma’s cruelty to his pet cat intensified yesterday when adidas dropped him and sponsors withdrew support from West Ham because of their weak response to his horrific behaviour.
Zouma was hit with the maximum fine of two weeks’ wages by his club — which amounts to £250,000 — after a video showed him kicking and slapping the cat. The money will be donated to animal welfare charities.
Sportswear giant adidas followed that by cancelling their contract with the 27-year-old Frenchman, which was understood to be worth £100,000 a year.
Yet West Ham are also counting the cost of their controversial decision to start Zouma in Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over Watford, with life insurance company Vitality suspending their £500,000a-year sponsorship of the club.
Sponsors including Experience Kissimmee and Yield App are now evaluating their relationship with the east London club. Umbro condemned the abuse which was caught on camera, while Heineken said they were ‘appalled’.
The RSPCA announced yesterday that they had seized the cats owned by Zouma, taking them in for a medical check-up. The pets will remain in their care until their investigation is complete and could yet be returned to the player.
As well as his public apology, Zouma has said sorry to his team-mates at their Rush Green training ground. It is understood the £29.8million defender will be sent on an animal awareness course by his club as part of his punishment.
But the player is not set to be dropped from their squad for Sunday’s trip to Leicester unless it emerges that the cats were injured while in Zouma’s care.
It was manager David Moyes’ decision to start Zouma against Watford. Moyes said afterwards he selected him because he wanted to field the ‘best team’ and that he was ‘one of our better players’ — comments which attracted criticism yesterday, including from mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who described the situation as ‘despicable’.
Sportsmail has been told part of the manager’s thinking was that he wanted the player to ‘face the music’, knowing he will be jeered by supporters whenever and wherever he plays following the footage.
More than 200,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Zouma to be prosecuted.
Essex Police have confirmed they are liaising with the RSPCA, who said yesterday: ‘We’d like to reassure people that we’re investigating and the cats are safe and in our care. We have been dealing with this since before the clip went viral online and we need to follow the proper legal process and not discuss due to UK GDPR laws.’
Zouma was booed throughout Tuesday’s game at the London Stadium, with his surprise selection coming hours after West Ham had issued a statement in which they ‘unreservedly condemned’ his actions.
The video was believed to have been filmed by Zouma’s brother, Yoan, the Dagenham and Redbridge player, who then uploaded it to Snapchat.
The club issued another statement yesterday. It read: ‘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.’
They added that the player, who has apologised, is ‘extremely remorseful’.