It's exceedingly quick, the Football Association's cricket match (7)
I believe the answer is:
fastest
'it's exceedingly quick' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'football association's cricket match' is the wordplay.
'football association's' becomes 'FA's' (abbreviation).
'cricket match' becomes 'test' (a test is a kind of cricket match).
'fas'+'test'='FASTEST'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fastest that I've seen before include "Speediest" , "Quickest" , "Most rapid" , "Finishing first" .)