Relying on the theory behind the Smith-MacMillan form of a rational matrix at

, a necessary and sufficient condition is derived from the solvability of matrix Diophantine equations of the form

, where

, and

are given proper rational matrices and

and

are unknown proper rational matrices. It is shown that the above result can be used in order to resolve in a new illuminating way the exact model matching problem (EMMP). If a solution to EMMP exists, then the family of all solutions is parametrized.