The treatment of Anthony Taylor breaks my heart

I'm shocked, saddened and upset at the abuse and animosity being shown towards Anthony Taylor after conclusion of the Europa League final. Beyond the match, the vitriol continued in the parking deck and even followed him to the airport where his family was also terrorized. 

I don't use the word terrorized lightly. You could see the fear on his daughters face. She will never forget the trauma of that day. 

Why did this happen? In my opinion, there is a massive gap between the laws of the game and the general publics understanding of those laws. Additionally, the referee must try and uphold the spirit of the game which brings in a level of subjectivity that is hard to communicate and explain. 

Additionally, team managers, players and even the media stand to benefit from trying to manipulate referees during a match. Post match, it is easier to demonize a referee than it is to criticize one's own team or performance. 

In the end, the ref is made out to be the villain. The evil character who has purposely thrown a match one way or another. Fans think it is their job to met out punishment and justice on behalf of their club. It creates unsafe conditions and it will lead to injuries and death. 

If more severe punishments are not handed out to clubs for their managers and fans behavior towards officials, we will just continue to lose more refs and eventually, we will eventually lose a ref's life to one of these angry mobs. It is only a matter of time.