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Raise Your Game: How important is the political influence that sport can have?

Lord Herman Ouseley: Sport can influence young people to show them that it's about doing your best, and not just about winning. The most important thing is raising your own aspirations, raising your game.

It's important to get people to stretch themselves, and sport can do that. Both in terms of what they can do physically, and also mentally - becoming more confident in meeting other people and being more sociable. Sport can give young people a lot more responsibility earlier in life. It's about pushing yourself and always believing you can do better.

RYG: Who are your positive sporting role models?

LHO: Dennis Law was my all-time favourite footballer, and there were other global icons like Pele. I remember meeting Dennis Law once, I was so over-awed I didn't know what to say. I was stunned because I always knew if I ever met him what I was going to say to him, but all of a sudden there we were, looking at each other, and I was gobsmacked. But for me he was someone you just got palpitations every time you saw the guy on the pitch because he really could do it.

I think the people that I most admire were people who did greater things, beyond just sport. Someone like Mohammed Ali, in terms of what he did in transforming people's approach to sport, but also in his political life. When he said that he wasn't going to take part in the Vietnam War, he ended up in prison.

I've also admired people who've been destroyed in the process of taking up the challenge of things like racism.

There are people like Bob Hazel and Howard Gale who dared to challenge the dressing rooms in the clubs that they played. They were the only black players and they said 'I'm not putting up with this sort of nonsense.' Of course in those days they said you were not part of the crowd, you didn't have a thick skin or you've got a chip on your shoulder. It's all banter and you've got to put up with it. But they were not prepared to put up with it, and it, in part, destroyed their careers.

I admire people who put their necks on the line. People in sport have done that for equality, whether it's women's equality, race equality or disability equality, to try and challenge inequalities and unfair treatment. They've then suffered as a consequence.

I also admire those who've achieved great things on the football pitch or indeed in other sports. I like most sports, and I really marvel at what people can do when they push themselves beyond what I've been prepared to.

RYG: Young people look up to major footballers in sport today. What role can they play?

LHO: We've taken top name footballers, like Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera, into schools to talk about their experiences. The kids would be absolutely stunned just being in the room with them. These are highly paid, international footballers, and they're prepared to go into schools and youth clubs and talk about their experiences.

Most people will tell you that David Beckham in his younger days was an average footballer who had potential, but when someone like Eric Cantona joined Manchester United, David saw how he worked when everyone else had gone home. David realised if you work at your free-kicks, and you keep working at the things that you've got to be good at, you become better at it, and then you become even better, and eventually you become great.

No matter how talented you are, you've got to work at it. If you want to be a top concert pianist, you've got to practise and practise and practise.

People like Ryan Giggs go into schools and they talk about racism. They talk about the pain, the ridiculous nature of insulting people simply because of the colour of their skin, their race, their nationality, their ethnicity, and other forms of hatred, whether it's homophobia, or people who are disabled. I think that's a very important part of what footballers can do, and what they do do.

The other thing is letting kids know the realities of the world. Less than 1% who aspire to get into academies get into academies, and probably as few as 1% actually make the grade. Much as you think that you'd like to be the next Cristiano Ronaldo, or the next Michael Owen, you need to be realistic. Work hard at your sport, but also work hard at your studies. See other opportunities in life, and realise that only very few can get to the top.

Encourage people to go as far as they can, to aim for the sky and dream about it, but also to be realistic. I say to a lot of kids I see 'No matter how good you are, don't neglect your studies because at some stage you're going to need it, because sometimes one injury can finish your career even before it starts.'