They play in Spain, as arranged, first (8)
I believe the answer is:
pianists
'they play' is the definition.
Although both the answer and 'play' are nouns, they are not in the same form of the noun.
'in spain as arranged first' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'as arranged' indicates anagramming the letters.
'first' becomes 'ist' (ist resembles 1st).
'spain' is an anagram of 'pians'.
'pians' enclosing 'ist' is 'PIANISTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pianists that I've seen before include "Pub performers sometimes" , "Brahms and Liszt, for example" .)