The organisation says urgency is needed, as it requires the funding by the end of the year to make sure it can attract $425,000 from Fifa.
After that it could go to funding bodies, confident the rest of the $3 million the project would cost could be raised.
Football South's proposal is for two all-weather artificial sports fields on Logan Park.
The organisation yesterday put its case to the Dunedin City Council at a public forum.
The new pitches at Logan Park would be built on fields bordered by Union St East and Logan Park Dr, next to the already upgraded changing rooms.
Intended as a multi-use facility, it would include one field with football markings, one with both football and rugby, as well as an artificial cricket wicket in the middle.
It could also be used for recreation by the general public.
It was hoped construction could begin late this year, taking three to six months before it was ready for use.
Football South chief executive Chris Wright said New Zealand Football had ``99% agreed'' to put $425,000 towards it.
The funding comes as a result of the new Fifa Forward programme.
Under the programme, Fifa puts $4.5 million into each member nation per World Cup cycle, an increase on the $1.2 million of the old Fifa goal fund.
Mr Wright said he hoped that would help reassure the council there was another investor.
From there, the council's potential investment was crucial, as Football South needed at least one-third of the overall funding to apply to various trusts for more funding.
The pitches would be floodlit, existing lights being upgraded.
It would provide football with its only lit facility in Dunedin.
Mr Wright said the sport had 10,000 participants in Dunedin and had grown 80% over the past six years. This year there were 17 new teams.
``We really do need something like this and we want to take some pressure off the fields that are getting hammered throughout the city.''
Football South had calculated that one in every five training sessions were cancelled because of weather, a number the pitch could help reduce.
The turf would meet both Fifa and IRB requirements, meaning high-level games could be played there.
