The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 8 letter word FANTASY FOOTBALL
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
F
A
N
T
A
S
Y
F
O
O
T
B
A
L
L
More clues leading to the result FANTASY FOOTBALL
- Fizzy drink delivery outside extremely shoddy base for armchair sport?
- Fancy version of team-building
- Layoffs at lab not fixed, pretend management
- Aficionado totally fab, so amazing in supporters’ game?
- Pay for dance after dream sporting competition
- Loyal staff running with baton in team-building exercise
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "sporting competition" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case sporting competition = fantasy football.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.