BANGKOK, July 16 - The future of Socceroos coach Graham Arnold is under intense scrutiny with Australian media speculating that he is about to be replaced and a Web site petitioning for him to be sacked.

Arnold has been heavily criticised for Australia's disappointing start to the Asian Cup, which saw them draw 1-1 with Oman then lose 3-1 to Iraq.

Newspaper reports on Monday claimed that Arnold would be replaced by Dutchman Dick Advocaat, regardless of how far Australia progressed in the tournament.

Advocaat, who applied for the job in 2005 but lost out to his countryman Guud Hiddink, would take control of the Australians next year when they open their qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Arnold, who has a three-year contract with the Football Federation of Australia (FFA), will take over as coach of Australia's Under-23 team that is trying to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, the reports claimed.

A Web site (sackarnold.com) has begun a petition calling for him to be fired.

There were almost 3,000 signatures on the site hours before Australia's final Group A match on Monday against Thailand.

The Socceroos need to win the match to have any chance of progressing to the quarter-finals and avoid the embarrassment of an early exit.