Two Venezuelan footballers were sacked Tuesday by their first division team after one of them videotaped the other mistreating a kitten and shared it on social media, sparking an outcry.

Zulia FC said it had "definitively expelled" midfielder David Barreto and defender Eduin Quero amid public outrage over the video. Quero was a member of the Venezuela squad that reached the final of the 2017 FIFA Under-20 World Cup.

The club said the two players had been "definitively expelled for violating the internal regulations of the club by carrying out actions that undermine the values of this institution."

It had earlier said the pair had been suspended pending further disciplinary measures.

Animal rights NGO Asodepa said Quero had published the images of his team-mate Barreto "committing a cruel act of mistreatment towards an innocent kitten."

Asodepa said a sequence of images published on social media shows Barreto raising the cat and stretching its limbs amid laughter, then throwing the animal to the ground.

"What will fans think of them now, knowing that there is a clear link between animal abuse and the mistreatment of people," the rights group said.

The club said it would recommend the players for "psychological evaluation" as well as other measures to "redirect their behaviour".