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A mistake by the soccer people last month (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

fault

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'a mistake' is the definition.
('fault' can be a synonym of 'mistake')

'by the soccer people last month' is the wordplay.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'the soccer people' becomes 'fa' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'last month' becomes 'ult' (short for 'last month' in correspondence).
'fa'+'ult' is 'FAULT'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fault that I've seen before include "Blame" , "Defect; culpability" , "Sin, error" , "An incorrect serve in tennis" , "Shortcoming" .)

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