Cloth starts to effect change on football (4)
I believe the answer is:
ecru
'cloth' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'starts to effect change on football' is the wordplay.
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'football' becomes 'RU' (I've seen this in other clues).
The initial letters of 'effect change' is 'ec'.
'ec'+'ru'='ECRU'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ecru that I've seen before include "light beige" , "The Color" , "Buff or beige" , "Strange cure for a colour" , "Cure (anag) - unbleached linen" .)