The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 plus 6 letter word FOOTBALL SEASON
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
F
O
O
T
B
A
L
L
S
E
A
S
O
N
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.