Swiss football’s new power broker listens first, but difficult decisions await Marinko Jurendic

Marinko Jurendic arrived at his first public appearance as the Swiss Football Association’s new chief sports officer with no sweeping diagnosis of Swiss football. Asked about his priorities during his first weeks, he said he had focused on listening, “and understanding where Swiss football is.”

Jurendic has held the role for two weeks. The newly created position gives him a level of authority no one at the association has previously had. He reports directly to President Peter Knäbel and oversees nearly every part of the game within the SFV: women’s and men’s football, senior national teams, youth teams, grassroots football and elite sport.

The post was created as part of a structural adjustment, the first major reform project of Knäbel’s presidency. Knäbel’s election last year was described as a small revolution because he had never before led the SFV with his broad experience as a former player, coach, trainer and sporting director.

Jurendic also brings experience across several football roles. His family moved to Switzerland from northern Bosnia when he was eight. He made 87 appearances in the Challenge League as a player, but left a deeper mark as an administrator. At FC Zürich, where he served as sporting director from 2020 to 2023, he hired André Breitenreiter as coach. The club unexpectedly won the Swiss championship in 2022. Jurendic later moved to the Bundesliga club FC Augsburg, which dismissed him last year.

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And understanding where Swiss football is.