Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has backed calls for the establishment of a national second division or A-League reserves competition to remove the bottleneck of young Australian players who are pushing to play senior football.

After new Football Federation Australia technical director Rob Sherman told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this week that there was "imminent danger" ahead that could result in failure to qualify for future World Cups, Arnold said it was vital that players between the key development ages of 17 and 22 had somewhere to play.

'I just want to help these great Australian kids fulfil their dreams and have a special life.' Graham Arnold Credit:AAP

The National Youth League only runs for 10 rounds over the summer, with most A-League youngsters spending the rest of the year in their state-based NPL competitions, which are not of an adequate standard to facilitate their improvement.

Arnold bristled at suggestions that club coaches like himself, when he was at Sydney FC, were partly responsible because he did not give enough minutes to talented young local players.