Who are England playing in U17 World Cup and when?

The 2025 Under-17 World Cup gets under way in Qatar on Monday, with England and the Republic of Ireland among the nations involved.

There will be 48 teams competing in the tournament, copying the format that will be in use at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

England's first match takes place on Tuesday against Venezuela at 15:15 GMT.

The competition has been held every two years since its inauguration in 1985, although the 2021 tournament did not take place.

However, the 2025 tournament marks the start of five U17 World Cups in the next five years - all hosted in Qatar.

England won the tournament in 2017, while Nigeria are the most successful nation with five World Cup victories.

Germany are the defending champions after beating France on penalties in the 2023 final in Indonesia.

Starting on Monday, 3 November, the tournament will last until Thursday, 27 November.

The 48 teams are split into groups of four and face three other sides once in a round-robin format.

The top two from each group will progress into the knockout rounds, as well as the eight best third-place teams from each group. The rest of the tournament is a knockout format.

Eight matches will take place each day across the first nine days of the World Cup.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Group J

Group K

Group L

England head coach Neil Ryan has named a squad of 21 players for the tournament in Qatar.

Among those in the England squad are Chelsea midfielder Reggie Walsh, who played for the Blues in the Champions League in October.

Aston Villa midfielder Bradley Burrowes made his Premier League debut in August.

Southampton goalkeeper Dylan Moody, son of 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Lewis, is in the squad.

Also to feature is Manchester City's Reigan Heskey, son of former Liverpool and England striker Emile.

Striker Alejandro Rodriguez has already played for England at under-20s level, as well as making his Ligue 1 debut for Lyon last season.

Goalkeepers

Defenders

Midfielders

Forwards

On paper, Brazil have the best recent record in the U17 World Cup and are one of only three nations, alongside Mexico and New Zealand, to also play in each of the previous five editions.

European duo Germany and France, who played out the 2023 final, both feature among the most-fancied teams in the competition, while Mali finished third two years ago.

Given the taste of Premier League and Champions League football that some of the England squad has had, they will hope to be among the contenders throughout the tournament.

This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.

Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your questions.

We want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you do.

The team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts including our experts and pundits.

We will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world's biggest sporting events.

Our coverage will span the BBC Sport website, app, social media and YouTube accounts, plus BBC TV and radio.