The San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St Louis Rams took steps toward Los Angeles by officially filing a relocation application with the NFL.

All three teams have been angling for a move to LA and they unsurprisingly notified the NFL of their relocation request on Monday, the first day the organisations were eligible to petition the league.

St Louis are reportedly eyeing a move to the city of Inglewood, while San Diego and Oakland are believed to be weighing up a switch to Carson.

The NFL released a statement, which read: "The applications will be reviewed this week by league staff and three league committees that will meet in New York on Wednesday and Thursday -- the Los Angeles Opportunities, Stadium, and Finance committees.

"The applications will be presented for consideration at next week's league meeting in Houston on Tuesday and Wednesday. The relocation of a franchise requires the affirmative vote of three-quarters of the NFL clubs [24 of 32]."

Chargers president and chief executive Dean Spanos explained the decision in an interview posted via the team's official website.

"This has been probably the single most difficult decision that I have ever made, and our family has ever made, in business," Spanos said.

"I promise you, it wasn't an easy decision to come to. I've lived here 31 years of my life, and that is almost half of my life. I have all my friends here, and a lot of great memories. Not just with the football team, but with the rest of my life how it all played out here.

"So it was very difficult to come to this decision. It's been 14 years that we've been working very hard to try and get something done here. We've had nine different proposals that we've made, and all of them were basically rejected by the city. 

"Over 25 per cent of our business comes from Riverside County, Orange County and the Los Angeles County area. Another team or teams going in there would have a huge impact on that. I think that is what really was the catalyst that got this whole thing going because when the Rams decided to make their move there, this was a move to protect our business more than anything. So we find ourselves where we do right now."

The Rams said in a brief statement their potential relocation "would be effective for the 2016 NFL League Year", while the Raiders are yet to comment.