Chur Double Down on Arriola’s Vision as the Backroom Takes Centre Stage

In their first official communication since promotion to the Super League and the club’s formal transition to full-time professional status, Chur have made their intentions unmistakably clear. Before a single signing is announced, before transfer rumours take hold, the club has chosen to lay its foundations in public. The message is deliberate: this project is about structure, ideology, and continuity. At the heart of these changes is an unequivocal show of faith in long-term head coach Iñaki Arriola. Rather than reshaping the squad in haste, Chur have opted to strengthen the ecosystem around him, ensuring that his ideas are supported, challenged, and sustained at every level of the club.

At boardroom level, Chur have appointed Mikel Martija as Director of Football and Albert Puigdollers as Technical Director, forming a three-man Senior Leadership Group alongside Arriola, operating directly under Chairman Semir Chiesa. It is a model rooted in clarity rather than hierarchy: aligned expertise, shared responsibility.

Martija, 48, arrives with one of the most substantial CVs in Swiss football’s recent memory. Seven years shaping Eibar’s sporting direction were followed by spells at Racing Santander in La Liga and an eight-year tenure at Mirandés. Across those roles, he earned a reputation as a meticulous talent identifier – someone less interested in reputation than profile, fit, and trajectory. At Chur, Martija is expected to lead on all matters relating to the playing staff, working in close partnership with Arriola on recruitment, succession planning, and squad evolution.

Puigdollers’ remit sits elsewhere, but is no less influential. A former youth coach within the famed La Masia system, and later a key figure at Catalan academy specialists CF Damm, his background is steeped in development pathways rather than immediate results. His appointment speaks directly to Chur’s regional identity: a club operating in a canton where long-term cultivation, not rapid turnover, has always been a necessity rather than a preference.

On the training pitch, Arriola has also been selective. Iván Madrano arrives as Assistant Manager, a coach whose journey mirrors the modern evolution of the profession. Beginning as a performance analyst at Tenerife, Madrano transitioned into coaching at Málaga, where he spent six years refining his approach, before taking on a two-year spell as first-team manager at Castellón in Spain’s third tier.

Those who know him describe a methodical, data-literate thinker with an instinct for emerging tactical trends – a profile that dovetails neatly with Arriola’s own blend of structure and adaptability. This feels less like an assistant appointment and more like a strategic alliance.

Alongside him, Mario Utrera takes charge as Head of Youth Development. Recruited from Talavera in Spain’s fourth tier after applying for the role, Utrera represents a different but complementary strand of Spanish coaching culture: rigorous, process-driven, and deeply committed to individual development. In a club that has already shown a willingness to trust its academy graduates, his influence could prove decisive in the years ahead.

The final piece of the puzzle arrives in recruitment. Jordi Ortola joins from Étoile Carouge to lead the scouting department, working directly under Martija. Ortola is known for his broad European network and his ability to assess not just talent, but context – a crucial skill for a club stepping into the Super League without the financial safety nets enjoyed by its rivals.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of this announcement is what it omits. There are no marquee signings, no sweeping declarations of transfer ambition. Instead, Chur have chosen to publicly define how they will operate before revealing who they will recruit. It suggests continuity rather than upheaval, evolution rather than reinvention.

For a newly promoted club, this is a confident, almost defiant stance. Chur are not chasing the Super League; they are preparing to belong there.