West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has given a powerful response to questions regarding the situation with his teammate Kurt Zouma.
Disturbing footage emerged on Sunday afternoon of Zouma kicking and slapping his pet cat, which was filmed and posted onto Snapchat by his brother Yoan Zouma.
The 27-year-old Frenchman controversially started in West Ham's victory against Watford on Tuesday night, and he has since been fined £250,000 by the Hammers, while his two pet cats have been taken away by the RSPCA, who are conducting an investigation.
Antonio has since been speaking to a reporter outside the club's training ground, and while the striker does not condone Zouma's actions, he has questioned why there have been calls for his teammate to be sacked when players in the past have only received short-term bans for racism.
Asked by a reporter for his reaction to Zouma's situation, Antonio said: "I've got a question for you. Do you think what he's done is worse than racism?"
"I'm not condoning a thing that he's done. I don't agree with what he has done at all.
"But there's people that have been convicted and been caught for racism, and have played football afterwards. They got an eight-game punishment or something like that, but people are now calling for people to be sacked and to lose their livelihood.
"I've just got to ask this question to everyone out there: is what he's [Zouma] done worse than what the people convicted of racism done?"
Zouma, who has also lost his Adidas sponsorship, could potentially face up to four years in prison after a legal complaint was filed against the Frenchman in Paris, which has led to lawyers working for La Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis, the largest animal rights group in France, contacting prosecutors.
