Confront footballers before church (4)
I believe the answer is:
face
'confront' is the definition.
('face' can be a synonym of 'confront')
'footballers before church' is the wordplay.
'footballers' becomes 'fa' (Football Association abbreviation).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'fa'+'ce'='FACE'
(Other definitions for face that I've seen before include "Confront - mug (slang)" , "Outward appearance" , "Deal with" , "steep side of mountain" , "celebrity" .)