Privileged citizen mean ref sent off (7)
I believe the answer is:
freeman
'privileged citizen' is the definition.
(someone given the freedom of a city)
'mean ref sent off' is the wordplay.
'sent off' indicates anagramming the letters.
'mean'+'ref'='meanref'
'meanref' is an anagram of 'FREEMAN'.
(Other definitions for freeman that I've seen before include "Person at liberty or with special rights" , "honoured citizen" , "Old DJ" , "Morgan - - (films)" , "he's totally liberated" .)