Supported Dubs from the start after sanction (8)
I believe the answer is:
approved
'supported' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'start after sanction' is the wordplay.
'start' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'sanction' becomes 'approve' ('approve' can be a synonym of 'sanction').
'd' after 'approve' is 'APPROVED'.
'dubs from the' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for approved that I've seen before include "Official" , "Officially sanctioned" , "Accepted as satisfactory" , "confirmed" , "Sanctioned, authorised" .)