Allow in French championship (7)
I believe the answer is:
entitle
'allow' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in french championship' is the wordplay.
'in french' becomes 'en' ('en' can be French for 'in' e.g. en France).
'championship' becomes 'title' ('title' can be a synonym of 'championship').
'en'+'title'='ENTITLE'
(Other definitions for entitle that I've seen before include "Name; enable" , "confer rank" , "Warrant" , "Give a right or authority to" , "Qualify, empower" .)