Chur’s Record-Breaking March to the Top

Chur celebrating their Promotion League title and at a packed Wankdorf Stadium as they faced Young Boys in the Schweizer Cup final.

There are seasons that feel inevitable only once they are complete. Chur’s 2031/32 campaign will be remembered as one of those years where the numbers merely confirm what had been clear for months: Iñaki Arriola’s project had crossed the line from contender to benchmark. In his sixth season at the club, Arriola did not simply guide Chur to the Promotion League title, he oversaw one of the most dominant league performances in recent memory.

The raw figures are startling. Twenty-six wins, six draws and just two defeats across thirty-four games delivered 84 points and an eighteen-point gap to second place, a margin that stripped the title race of suspense long before spring arrived. Chur scored more goals than anyone else in the division, finding the net 79 times, while conceding only 25, the second-best defensive record in the league. Between November and January, they put together a ten-game winning streak that effectively ended the contest, turning a competitive league into a procession.

Chur’s dominant performance in the league and on the data sheet. Click the image for a full league table.

This was dominance built on structure rather than spectacle. Chur were not a side defined by chaos or moments, but by repetition, clarity and control. Matches followed a familiar rhythm: patient authority without the ball, vertical incision with it, and an ability to suffocate opponents once ahead. By the turn of the year, teams were arriving in Graubünden knowing that keeping the scoreline respectable was often the most realistic objective.

At the centre of it all stood Dion Cakolli, deservedly named Player of the Year. His 25 league goals were the sharpest edge of Chur’s attack, but his true value lay in how relentlessly he turned pressure into outcomes. Cakolli finished the season with 42 goal contributions in all competitions, the reference point around which everything else revolved. He was supported by a cast that blended creativity with volume: Matteo Gambardella’s 13 assists placed him second in the league rankings, while Alexandre Vayvendaz, Andrea Favara, Zidan Tairi and Cakolli himself all finished on nine assists apiece, underlining just how many different routes Chur had to goal.

Chur’s front four in comparison with the rest of league based on percentile ranks.

The distribution of responsibility was perhaps the most telling feature of the season. Tairi ended the campaign with 31 goal contributions, operating between lines and in half-spaces with a freedom that reflected Arriola’s growing trust in his attacking midfielders. Gambardella added 27, Favara 19, and even Adriano Onyegbule, signed mid-season, contributed 14 in just half a campaign. This was not a team dependent on one hot streak or one system tweak, but a side whose attacking output was spread across roles, zones and phases.

Their domestic cup run only reinforced that sense of arrival. Chur’s journey to the Schweizer Cup final captured national attention, carrying them past more illustrious names before eventually falling 2–1 to Young Boys. The absence of European qualification, due to Young Boys’ league position, did little to dull the achievement. For a club still establishing itself at this level, reaching a national final was a statement in itself, both sporting and financial, and the additional revenue will almost certainly shape the next phase of squad building.

There were quieter, more symbolic victories too. Across the season, Graubünden-born players Andrea Favara and Guilian Graf accumulated a combined 3,600 minutes, a figure that resonated deeply with a fanbase sensitive to questions of identity and representation. In a year defined by records and trophies, that local presence mattered, grounding the success in place as well as performance.

Looking ahead, the landscape shifts again. Biel-Bienne’s relegation from the Challenge League removes a familiar opponent from next season’s schedule, while Vaduz’s failure to overcome Winterthur ends hopes of a Liechtenstein promotion storyline. Lausanne’s rise to the Super League and Aarau’s drop into the Challenge League subtly redraw the competitive map, but Chur’s focus is inward. The financial boost from the cup run, combined with promotion, offers Arriola an opportunity to reinforce without dismantling the core that carried them here.

For now, though, this season stands alone. A title secured with authority, records rewritten, and a club that no longer speaks about progress as an aspiration but as a lived reality. In the sixth year of his tenure, Iñaki Arriola has not just led Chur upward. He has made them undeniable.