Russian Constitutional Court to hear Safonov's child support case on October 8

Russia's Constitutional Court will hear goalkeeper Matvey Safonov's challenge to a family law provision governing child support on October 8, 2026. Safonov, a 27-year-old goalkeeper for Paris Saint-Germain and the Russian national team, contests Article 81, Paragraph 1 of the Family Code, which sets child support at 25 percent of a parent's income for one child. He argues that for high-income earners, this formula results in payments far exceeding the child's actual needs and violates his constitutional rights.

The dispute began in 2024 when Moscow's Nikulin District Court ordered Safonov to pay 25 percent of his income to his ex-wife Anastasia Kazachek for their daughter Maya. According to media reports, Safonov earned 8–12.5 million rubles monthly at Krasnodar and approximately 21.7 million rubles monthly at PSG—meaning 25 percent would equal 2 to 5.4 million rubles per month. However, Safonov made only limited voluntary transfers totaling 1.25 million rubles between 2024 and 2025. The resulting debt accumulated to over 66 million rubles by 2025, when the Federal Bailiff Service compelled full payment.

Safonov subsequently requested that his voluntary transfers be credited against the enforced debt, but courts declined, classifying the payments as gifts rather than child support. He then filed suit against the Federal Bailiff Service, and after that failed, escalated to the Constitutional Court. In January 2026, Safonov's attorney Andrey Kryuchkov told Match TV that Safonov had filed a counter-claim alleging abuse of rights by Kazachek, asserting she attempted to recover court costs twice and has initiated 15 separate lawsuits while obstructing his contact with his daughter.

Legal experts suggest Safonov's challenge faces steep odds. Attorney Lyudmila Aivar, chair of the Women's Rights Movement, stated that the Constitutional Court has repeatedly upheld Family Code provisions and is unlikely to find Article 81 unconstitutional. She noted that child support need not be spent immediately but can accumulate for future use. Family Code Article 83 does allow courts to impose a fixed sum instead of a percentage under certain conditions—such as unstable income—but courts typically resist lower fixed sums for high-income parents, and Safonov's case does not clearly meet those criteria.