Team on course to create a diversion (9)
I believe the answer is:
sidetrack
'a diversion' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'team on course' is the wordplay.
'team' becomes 'side' (I've seen this before).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'course' becomes 'track' (track is a kind of course**).
'side'+'track'='SIDETRACK'
'to create' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sidetrack that I've seen before include "Divert" , "lead away" , "Bit of railway" , "draw away" , "Provide diversion" .)