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.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'play football on the side' is the wordplay.
'play football' becomes 'ers' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'the side' becomes 'wing' (as in left and right wings).
'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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