A Brazilian club has become embroiled in controversy after sacking four of its players for performing sex acts on each other.

Gaucho dismissed the squad members after a video of them engaged in the incident in the team's locker room emerged and went viral.

In the footage, one player is seen performing the act on two of his teammates while a fourth player films them on his mobile phone.

"There are moments in life when the best thing you can do is stay quiet, and just watch the events," said the club in an official statement released in the wake of the players' dismissal.

Gaucho president Gilmar Rosso, who is a professor of sociology, also issued a statement defending his decision to sack the squad members involved.

"When I pressed play, I immediately deleted it, it seemed disgusting to me," The Sun quotes him as saying.

"Outside business hours we have nothing to do with the situation. If they want to get drunk, drink, gay or not, that's their problem. What I have to answer as president is during a trip, office hours. That's my responsibility.

"The Gaucho Sport Club is not a keeper of morals and good manners. The only thing wrong was to make the video inside the locker room."

Rosso went on to insist that the sackings were not motivated by homophobia, claiming that he would have made the same decision if the video had a "heterosexual nature".

Gaucho, who play in the third tier of football in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, lost their first match since sacking the players 3-0.