Patrick Nelson hopes the Irish FA will be in a position to make a "significant announcement" on a new National Training Centre later this year.
It was back in 2012 that the association outlined one of its major aims was to create a flagship facility to support elite level football here.
It is understood financing for the development will come from the NI Executive's delayed sub-regional stadia funding scheme, with the IFA also set to contribute to the overall costs for the centre.
Up to now Northern Ireland's male and female football squads have been using various training facilities close to their hotels ahead of games.
"One thing we really want to make huge progress on this time and that's the National Training Centre," said Nelson during the launch of the IFA's new five-year corporate strategy.
"We have not had a home to call our own from a training and development, and an elite player preparation perspective, ever, really.
"We have been itinerant for many, many years. It is important we turn this from a dream into reality within this strategy, and we have got a plan which we think is going well and deliverable, and hopefully that will be brought forward."
Nelson added: "I know people start talking about diggers, so maybe diggers on site soon," he added.
"It is a big project for us and we will be committing a fair amount of the association's own resources to it and we think it is the right thing to do.
"So look out for an announcement this year and hopefully we will be able to break ground on it soon."
A number of potential locations for the centre have been mentioned before, including the Northern Ireland Civil Service club in East Belfast.
Nelson said the association had been working closely with its partners to identify a site suitable to house such a major project.
“We have spent a lot of time working on this so we hope we have found a good place and good partners to work with," he added.
“When we did the National Stadium project between 2014 and 2016, the Irish FA Board committed £4.5m to that and we are looking at a fraction more than that, probably around £6m or £7m in terms of what we will put into the Training Centre project.
“It’s not the sort of thing you do every day. We have big project experience in redeveloping the national stadium and we will work with partners on this one.
“It’s not often we are in the position to be able to commit significant capital funds and we don’t do it every day.
"This is one we feel is absolutely right and we have the right project. "
