HE performed in front of capacity crowds at Old Trafford and Wembley, represented his country at international level and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Paul Gascoigne and David Beckham.

Yet, in a career spanning almost two decades, Harrow's most famous footballing figure never played a game.

His job wasn't to score goals, but perhaps more onerously, keep order amid the hectic world of top flight football.

For as well as forging a brilliant teaching career at Harrow School, Harrow Hill, David Elleray also became the best, and most controversial, referee in England.

Since hanging up his whistle in 2003, David turned his attention to writing his autobiography, The Man in the Middle, which was released earlier this month.

It provides a fascinating insight into our national game, and the personality of a man who flit between the rarefied environs of Harrow and the more earthy surroundings of the footballing fraternity with equal success.

David said: "They are different worlds but there are a lot of similarities between refereeing and teaching at a boys' boarding school. Both are about managing people and creating a disciplined envirnoment where positivity flourishes and negativity is supressed."

David has been a geography teacher at Harrow since 1977, combining the demands of school with refereeing.

He said: "The boys find it intriguing. They would like to think I'm great friends with all the players and get regular invites to Beckingham Palace."

But, like any other football fans, the Harrow boys also loved bantering their housemaster if he'd been involved in a controversial match.

"I refereed a game at Anfield some years ago and the Daily Mail ran a back-page headline saying Elleray, you blew it'. At assembley on the Monday, it seemed like half the school were sitting there waving the back page at me."

That incident followed what David self-deprecatingly described as "a poor game from me". Such words belie the haughty, pompous portrayal of him in the national press, where he was often caricatured as an arrogant public school-master interfering in a working-class game.

He was renowned for dishing out red and yellow cards, but this firm approach helped football become less violent and and more exciting.

Of the the numerous rule changes over the last decade, David picks two which have had the most impact.

He said: "Banning goalkeepers picking up back-passes has rooted out a lot of cynical time-wasting and the new offside rule made for more high-scoring games."

Aged just 13, David started refereeing in his home town of Dover because he "wasn't a particularly good player". However, he was always extremely ambitious and determined to be the best in the country.

After regularly topping the referee's league, based on external assessor's reports of every match, David's boyhood dream was fulfilled when he was named referee for the FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea in 1994.

He also refereed in all the major European competitions, an African Cup Final and a Brazialian Cup Final.

David said: "I was very proud to represent England. The international games were totally different to the blood and thunder of the domestic game. They posed different problems but were enjoyable."

Like different matches, different players also guaranteed different problems.

"Ian Wright and Paul Gascoigne were probably the worst, " said David. "They were unpredictable, one minute they were your best friend, the next they were snarling at you. It was easier to control the ones who were consistently bad like Vinny Jones."

However, there were also some who helped referees. David said: "I admired Gary Mabbutt and Gianfranco Zola who were great professionals."

Although retired, David is still heavily involved in football sitting on the FA Council, the FA Referees Council and directing the referee's committee in England. He also coaches referees, and hopes to see one of his proteges referee at the World Cup Finals one day, the only major honour that eluded him.

But he is more involved than ever at Harrow where he is house master at Druries and director of boarding.

He said: "I loved refereeing, but I love my job at Harrow just as much. I'm very lucky."