Supporting English players, made prediction (8)
I believe the answer is:
forecast
'prediction' is the definition.
(forecast is a kind of prediction)
'supporting english players' is the wordplay.
'supporting' becomes 'for'.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'players' becomes 'cast' (I've seen this before**).
'for'+'e'+'cast'='FORECAST'
'made' is the link.
(Other definitions for forecast that I've seen before include "Predict (event)" , "Prophecy" , "Prophesy" , "Predict as with weather" , "Meteorological surmise perhaps" .)