Criticise players in front of international fans who've paid to watch (9)
I believe the answer is:
castigate
'criticise' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'players in front of international fans who've paid to watch' is the wordplay.
'players' becomes 'cast' (group of actors).
'in front of' suggests taking the first letters.
'fans who've paid to watch' becomes 'gate' (those who've paid to attend a sporting event).
The first letter of 'international' is 'i'.
'cast'+'i'+'gate'='CASTIGATE'
(Other definitions for castigate that I've seen before include "Slap down" , "Punish" , "Severely reprimand" , "Severely criticise" , "Take to task" .)