France international manager Didier Deschamps has called the video of Kurt Zouma attacking his pet cat "shocking" and warned he could drop the defender as a result.
Zouma has been fined two weeks wages by West Ham for his actions and has seen his contract with Adidas cancelled, but manager David Moyes elected to start the centre-back against Watford, just a day after the video became public.
Moyes' decision has been widely criticised and is in stark contrast to the decision of Dagenham and Redbridge's actions towards Yoan Zouma, who filmed the attack. Yoan Zouma has been suspended until the completion of the RSPCA's investigation whilst football.london understand Kurt Zouma is available for selection for Sunday's clash against Leicester City.
The Hammers inclusion in the next French squad is in doubt after Deschamps spoke about the defender's actions in an interview with France 3.
"I was very surprised on Kurt’s part. It’s unacceptable, intolerable, cruelty without name," he said.
"These images are shocking and intolerable. I’m not a prosecutor, I’m here to make selections based on other criteria. It has happened that when players have made mistakes I leave them out for a while. I won’t change my way of progressing for the next [squad] list."
Zouma has seen his personal deal with Adidas cancelled, while Experience Kissimmee have ended their sponsorship of West Ham and Vitality have suspended their relationship with the club.
Stephen Taylor Heath, Head of Sports Law at JMW Solicitors has explained the legal ramifications behind Zouma's actions and the sponsor's decisions.
"Normally the club sponsor has the right to use the player in a ‘team’ context. Arguably therefore the player’s actions do not necessarily give a club sponsor the right to terminate. What does matter however is how the club deals with the situation," Heath said.
"Hence some of West Ham’s sponsors have said they are ‘monitoring’ the situation before acting. If they feel the club’s response reflects badly on the club and therefore the sponsor, they may trigger the termination clause which now seems to be the situation with some of West Ham’s sponsors."
Heath added: " The sponsors seem however to have taken action based on the view the video evidence is out there as is the fact the player played for the club and was not suspended notwithstanding the club had been made aware of the situation. The club must abide by the contract, Employment Law and Football Regulations in taking any action. The sponsor simply must look to its legal rights under the contract."
On Zouma's personal sponsorship deal Heath said: "The key point is that it is the reasonable opinion of the sponsor that counts, and, in this incident, they can point to the widespread public reaction to seek to support their justification of termination.
"Quite often a sponsor may seek to make a virtue of its termination of the agreement by seeking to garner positive publicity from it having taken swift decisive action and the moral high ground."
The RSPCA have taken Zouma's two pet cats into care and have been handed the lead on the investigation by the police. The charity are understood to be pursuing the matter at an 'urgent' rate and Zouma could be charged within days.
