The NFL has confirmed it will play its first regular-season match in Australia at the MCG next year. 

The league has committed to a multi-year agreement to stage matches in Melbourne following discussions with the Victorian government.

The Los Angeles Rams have been selected as the “designated team”, with their opponents to be announced at a later date.

The NFL is yet to announce when the match will be played.

“Expanding to Melbourne, Australia, a beautiful city with a rich sports history, underlines our ambitions to become a global sport and accelerate international growth,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

“We look forward to making history in what is an important market for the NFL and a significant next step in expanding our international footprint.”

Speaking at the MCG on Thursday morning, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan described the deal as “a major touchdown” for Victoria.

“Melbourne will become the only city in the world that will host an international tennis grand slam (tournament), a Formula One Grand Prix and now an NFL regular-season game,” Ms Allan said.

Ms Allan declined to say how much money the government had contributed to secure the NFL match.

Visit Victoria board member Eddie McGuire said there was a competitive bidding war to secure the fixture.

“The focus for the NFL and their international expansion and their games is to go to iconic places and there’s no more iconic place than Melbourne, Australia and the MCG,” he said.

“This is the place where the first Test cricket game was played. This is the place where the first game of Australian rules football was played. This is the place where the first Olympic Games in the Southern Hemisphere was conducted.

“It has been the theatre of dreams for so long and now it’s going to be the first place in Australia where (NFL) games will be played for points.”

Visit Victoria chair Andrew Penn said the event would be assisted by new direct flights from Los Angeles to Melbourne that were announced last week.

He could not provide an estimate for how much the match would contribute to the Victorian economy.

“Suffice to say, this is a major, major coup for Melbourne and Victoria,” Penn said.

“This is actually an event which is incredibly competitive globally and of course dollars matter.

“But at the end of the day, some of the most persuading factors about why the NFL is coming to Australia is because … of where we are today — we’re at the ‘G (MCG), we’re in Melbourne.”

The NFL staged a preseason match between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers at Sydney’s Stadium Australia in 1999.

More than 50 regular-season matches have been played outside of the United States in cities such as London, Munich and Mexico City.