Matvey Safonov, the goalkeeper for Russia’s national team and French club PSG, has filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court of Russia over child support payments for his daughter. According to Vedomosti, the footballer is asking the court to review several provisions of the Family Code, arguing that they prevent courts from setting payments in proportion to a child’s actual needs.
The complaint says that the lack of an upper limit on child support creates, in the applicant’s view, a risk of abuse by the parent receiving the money and may lead to unjust enrichment. Safonov cites his own case as an example: a court ordered him to pay one quarter of his income every month.
While playing for Krasnodar from 2017 to 2024, the goalkeeper earned 8 to 12.5 million rubles. After moving to PSG in 2024, he began receiving 250,000 euros, or about 21.7 million rubles at the July 8 exchange rate, according to French media reports.
In January 2024, Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court, acting on a claim filed by the player’s former wife Anastasia Safonova (Kazachek), ordered him to pay child support starting from January 18, 2022. According to the complaint, she submitted calculations saying she intended to spend at least 2.5 million rubles a month on the child. Safonov argues that such a sum is disproportionate to the needs of a small child and says the mother should contribute equally to the daughter’s upkeep.
The complaint states that, during enforcement proceedings, the footballer paid arrears totaling 61.2 million rubles for the period from January 18, 2022 to May 28, 2025. By the time the complaint was filed, the total amount transferred for his daughter’s maintenance had exceeded 90 million rubles.
Safonov’s former wife is continuing legal action against him. She says that since July 2024 he has not been paying child support from the income he receives at PSG and has not taken part in raising their daughter. She told Vedomosti that those cases are being prepared for hearings in the Moscow City Court. She described his attempt to challenge the Family Code in the Constitutional Court as “a disgrace.”
Experts interviewed by the newspaper said the Constitutional Court is unlikely to find Article 81, Part 1 of Russia’s Family Code unconstitutional. They noted that the law already allows courts to set child support as a fixed sum when percentage-based collection seriously harms one side’s interests, and also makes it possible to reduce the share of payments or transfer part of the money directly into the child’s account.