Ter Stegen sparks new crisis within Barcelona

Barcelona have decided to open a disciplinary investigation into goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen after he refused to sign his medical report, preventing it from being sent to La Liga's medical committee. According to Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo, the German goalkeeper refused to give the necessary consent to share his injury and surgery data, which prevented the committee from assessing his condition and hindering the club from benefiting from 80% of his salary under Financial Fair Play rules to register new players, most notably goalkeeper Juan Garcia . The club's management considered this refusal to represent a sporting and economic harm to the team and his teammates, noting that this behavior is unprecedented, as no player at the club has ever refused to share their medical data in similar cases . The club had planned to hold a face-to-face meeting with the goalkeeper after the end of the summer tour to discuss player registration procedures, but Ter Stegen informed the management of his refusal to sign the report . Barcelona's management clarified that the goalkeeper has the right to maintain the privacy of his medical data, but at the same time stressed that there are contractual obligations and internal rules that must be respected, and that breaching them could lead to disciplinary and possibly legal action, if it is proven that there has been serious harm to the club . The dispute comes amid differing estimates of the length of Ter Stegen's absence. The goalkeeper announced on his personal accounts that he would be absent for three months, while the club estimates that he could be absent for at least four months, with an additional month needed before returning to match participation . It is noteworthy that the club's official medical report described the recent operation as a "re-surgical intervention," without specifying a timeframe for the absence, which further complicated the situation after the goalkeeper refused to cooperate in completing the required procedures.