Unless the ref had a good excuse for having you take the band off(which he didn't) I think it's a bunch of bulls***.
I mean, whats going to happen? And why do you have to take it off? My friend wears one when he runs XC and one of the coaches at a track meet kept telling him to take the band off. He refused and now he has quit the track team. For him I don't think it was the fact that he feels strongly about the livestrong band but more of a control thing, he doesn't like people telling him what to do, too bad though, he was one of the best runners we had.