Sporting association (6)
I believe the answer is:
league
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">sporting association</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(eg a football league)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is the entire clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for league that I've seen before include "About five kilometres" , "Association of teams for competition" , "Former measure of distance, usually about three miles" , "Federation" , "Association of states or sports teams" .)