To all those saying referees should keep a low profile - that died the day someone decided fluoro-pink and yellow shirts would be appropriate.
To be honest, 99% of referees don't want to be stars. There is nothing worse (as a referee) than reading a match report and seeing your name in it. Of course there are those who wish they were still playing and always try to appease players at the expense of the laws, and the other extreme of zero-tolerance. There is a comment further up this thread: 'Its not about building relationships with players and managers'. To an extent I agree with this, but it is important to build a *repectful* relationship with the club - after all, you'll probably have to referee them again! This doesn't mean favouring them, but it does mean having a dialogue on the pitch, and sharing jokes etc. This can come across as 'over-familiarity', so it is a fine line to negotiate.
On another note, and one that is particularly irritating to me, it seems all too easy at grassroots level to say 'but Rooney does it, so why can't we?'. The managers all too often neglect their responsibility to promote good behaviour, with comments designed purely to incite his players against the match officials. This is much more damaging to young players than TV.
