BERLIN – Nine unemployed Germans were pictured on the front page of the country‘s most popular newspaper Bild on Thursday giving Bayern Munich captain Stefan Effenberg a single finger gesture for saying they were lazy. It was an echo of the incident at the 1994 World Cup when Effenberg abused fans in the same way as he was being substituted. Outrage over the millionaire soccer star‘s comments that most jobless people were too lazy to look for work because unemployment benefits were too generous have spilled into the election campaign.

Effenberg, who earns a reported 4 million euros a year, has refused to apologise for his remarks but union leaders have condemned them as tactless. In an interview with Germany‘s Playboy magazine, Effenberg had highlighted the fact that jobless benefits were only slightly lower than the minimum wage by saying: „I would cut jobless support to a minimum so that everyone would have to go to work. A lot are apparently living so comfortably from jobless benefits that they don‘t have any desire to get up early each morning and go to work.“

He added on Wednesday: „I didn‘t want to insult the unemployed who are really looking for a job. But I think the mass of unemployed is the way I described it. People are attacking me for it but I‘m entitled to my opinion.“ Bild pictured nine unemployed people, who described Effenberg as an arrogant millionaire out of touch with reality. Effenberg, 33, has long been a controversial figure. He was dropped from the 1994 World Cup team after a match in Chicago against South Korea when he gave German fans a single finger gesture after being substituted following a poor performance.

Two years ago he paid a 167,000 mark ($75,000) out-of-court settlement after being charged with assault for hitting a woman in a Munich nightclub. Reuters