100% agreed. It seems as if local federations or FIFA do nothing to protect their own officials. I see refs get constantly bullied, and nothing seems to happen to the players.
I also think part of the problem is there needs to be more than one referee on a soccer pitch.
I get the impression, which could be completely wrong, that referees are highly respected in Rugby. They don’t even call rules rules, they call them “laws”. Either way, I have yet to see players go apeshit on a referee. Cricket seems to be handled in a gentlemanly manner as well.