Down south, a team has to fade out (5)
I believe the answer is:
dixie
'down south' is the definition.
'Dixie' can be an answer for 'south' (I've seen this before). I am not certain of the 'down' bit.
'a team has to fade out' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'team' could be 'xi' (a football team, from Roman numerals for 11) and 'xi' is located in the answer.
'fade' could be 'die' (fade can mean to die away) and 'die' is found in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dixie that I've seen before include "Army cooking pot - the southern states of the USA" , "Southern states that seceded from the USA in 1861" , "Pan" , "The Deep South" , "South America's" .)