Crossword Genius

Quits purchasing gutless League teams (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

elevens

'teams' is the definition.
(eleven is a kind of team)

'quits purchasing gutless league' is the wordplay.
'quits' becomes 'evens' (I've seen this before).
'purchasing' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters take possession of others).
'gutless' means to remove the middle letters.
'league' with its middle taken out is 'le'.
'evens' going around 'le' is 'ELEVENS'.

(Other definitions for elevens that I've seen before include "1A, 20 [SUNDERLAND LEEDS]" , "Sports teams" , "Eg, football teams" , "Particular numbers" , "Some sportsmen" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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