Women footballers (Italian) exercise with special competitions on cold surfaces (6,6)

'competitions on cold surfaces' is the definition.
The definition suggests a plural noun which matches the answer.

'women footballers italian exercise with special' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'women' could be 'w' (standard abbreviation) and 'w' is found in the answer.
'footballers' could be 'inter' (I have seen 'foreign footballers' mean 'inter' so perhaps 'footballers' could also mean 'inter') and 'inter' is found within the answer.
'exercise' could be 'sport' (I've seen this before) and 'sport' is present in the answer.
'special' could be 's' (common abbreviation as in Special Air Service) and 's' is found within the answer.
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?