Declines employment opportunities ultimately given to football official (7)
I believe the answer is:
refuses
'declines' is the definition.
('refuse' can be a synonym of 'decline')
'employment opportunities ultimately given to football official' is the wordplay.
'employment' becomes 'use' ('use' can be a synonym of 'employment'**).
'ultimately' indicates one should take the final letters.
'given to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'football official' becomes 'ref' (ref is a kind of football official).
The final letter of 'opportunities' is 's'.
'use'+'s'='uses'
'uses' put after 'ref' is 'REFUSES'.
(Other definitions for refuses that I've seen before include "Says no" , "Declines" .)