They may play football on the side (7)

I believe the answer is:

wingers

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'they' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'play football on the side' is the wordplay.
'play football' becomes 'ers' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'the side' becomes 'wing' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ers' put after 'wing' is 'WINGERS'.

'may' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for wingers that I've seen is " Football players".)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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