Protected by law! Marca: Teli has the right to not disclose medical reports, Bell once had a precedent

According to the Marca News, Ter Stegen has the right not to disclose medical reports, and Bell has had a precedent before.

reported that the conflict between Barcelona and Ter Stegen is intensifying, which has sparked heated discussions. He refused to sign a consent form and asked the team to submit his medical report to La Liga. The move could lead to a disciplinary investigation process for Barcelona, which has sparked extensive discussions about player rights, medical data protection and privacy respect.

Telstegen shocked the club management by surprise when he rejected a request to allow his medical information to be disclosed. Although this behavior is rare in Spanish football, it has legal basis and precedent.

In the sports world, especially in top clubs like Barcelona or Real Madrid, it is almost routine to disclose players' injuries and medical reports. Coaches or medical teams often inform the public and media of the health of the player, and this transparency is designed to appease fans and fulfill their information disclosure obligations.

However, this seemingly natural and even indispensable practice conflicts with the fundamental rights of personal privacy and data protection that are enjoyed by any employee. The most representative precedent is Bale's case at Real Madrid.

In the final stage of Bale's play for Real Madrid, he asked the club's medical director not to disclose his detailed injury reports to protect his privacy and personal data rights.

So, what are the laws on this? The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU regulations on the processing of personal data, establishes the basic principles for processing such information:

Purpose Restrictions: Data can only be used for legitimate purposes clearly specified during collection.

Data Minimization: Only absolutely necessary data are collected.

Accuracy: The information must be accurate and kept updated.

Integrity and Confidentiality: Data must be protected from unauthorized access.

Storage Limit: Data is saved only within the necessary time.

Legal, fair and transparent: Processing must be legal, transparent and respect the rights of the data subject.

For the processing of personal data, at least one legal basis stipulated in Article 6 of the GDPR must be met. For the particularly protected category of health data, the legal requirement is stricter and requires clear, clear and unambiguous consent from the data subject.

This means that the club shall not share medical reports containing players' sensitive health data with La Liga unless expressly agreed. Doing so without permission will violate data protection rights and personal privacy rights, which are protected by the Spanish Constitution (Articles 18.1 and 18.4) and further strengthened by domestic case law in Europe and Spain.

In addition, football players, as employees of the club, also apply specific labor regulations. The Occupational Risk Prevention Act (Article 22.4) stipulates that employees' medical information can only be accessed by medical personnel and health authorities responsible for health supervision and may not be provided to employers or third parties without express consent.

This further confirms Ter Stegen's right to refuse to share sensitive medical information without his authorization. There is a false belief that athletes and other public figures have waived their privacy rights, but a recent ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stresses that fame does not eliminate privacy rights.

ECHR clearly states that even well-known people enjoy legal privacy protection expectations, and it is unacceptable to disseminate personal data at will just because of their fame. Therefore, while the medical information of elite players may have a public interest, boundaries must always be followed and consent must be obtained to avoid violations of fundamental rights.