Victoria has fended off NSW to score the right to host a key soccer game between Australia and Japan as part of the Socceroos' campaign to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Football Federation of Australia chief executive David Gallop have announced that the game will be held at Etihad stadium on October 11, promising a sell-out crowd.

Australia and Japan are already fierce soccer rivals.

The two countries clashed in the group stage of the 2006 World Cup finals, with Australia coming from behind to win the game.

They also met during qualification for the 2014 World Cup.

Mr Andrews said the game would be an enormous contest that would play a big part in making the cut to play in the World Cup in Russia in two year's time.

"It's the biggest part of the World Cup qualifications and it belongs to Victoria," Mr Andrews said.

"Over the last few months there has been one soccer match that every state in Australia has been vying to secure for their fans, for their economy, their future," he said. "This is a fantastic win for our city and our state."

But the contribution from Victorian taxpayers to lure to the game to Melbourne remains unclear. Mr Andrews said he did not want to give sensitive commercial information to NSW Premier Mike Baird on how Melbourne managed to secure the event.

"This will be a bad day for him (Mike Baird) I'm sure. I wish him well and no doubt he'll be able to come down here, as he has done some many times, to see how it is done properly on a first class playing surface."

Mr Gallop said the FFA "unashamedly" needed to look for a good commercial return, and had chosen Melbourne because it expected a full-house. He said Etihad Stadium had been chosen over the MCG because it was expected to be full.