Liam Rosenior is relishing the Premier League – and the chance to put his and the club’s raised profile to good use.

While he already knows the top flight, he made a different kind of debut this week and admitted he was slightly nervous about it.

The Albion man made his first speech for Show Racism The Red Card in a downstairs room at the Brighton Centre as part of UNISON’s regional delegates conference.

He sat at the top table with some distinguished speakers from the country’s largest public service workers’ union.

Racial prejudice, and the part it has played in tragic recent events around the country, was top of the agenda, along with the way football can be used to spread a more tolerant message.

Rosenior believes the Premier League and its teams are a great example of how people of different nationalities and religions can work together.

He laughed when a fellow speaker on the top table said: “When you’re at Tottenham, no one says, ‘Look at all these Romanians coming over here and taking our corners’, do they?”

Rosenior told his audience of about 150: “I’m more nervous standing in front of you than playing in front of 40,000 people so give me some time!

“The reason I am involved in Show Racism was my father was a footballer. I used to watch him at Upton Park, playing for West Ham.

“I was a proud five, six-year-old watching him play. I heard a comment from the stand, ‘Monkey!’ Bananas were thrown. Even at that age if affected how I felt about our society in general.

“Football is an amazing thing because it is a mirror of our society.

“I am lucky enough to be a Premier League footballer but representing the Premier League are over 100 different nationalities, many different races and religions.

“I think as a footballer, when I was young, I used to look up to footballers. They were everything to me.

“If I can have a positive influence on any young person, it is a fantastic position to be in and a privilege.”

Rosenior spoke for a little more than two minutes and told of his delight at seeing younger voters turn out in improved numbers at the recent general election.

And, speaking to The Argus, he offered a snapshot of how education starts at home.

The Argus:

Rosenior said: “I have four daughters. My oldest is 18 and my youngest is six. The motivation for me is they grow up in a world where their gender, and coming from an ethnic minority, doesn’t dictate what they can do.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from and who you are.

“I think subliminally over the years a lot of people have been maybe held back or prejudiced (against). People make judgements about you when you walk into a room.

“If you can break those judgements down and see people for who they genuinely are instead of those first reactions and get involved with them at a deeper level, you realise people can achieve things they probably didn’t even believe themselves.”

He added: “I do a lot of work at schools through the Albion In The Community , which is probably the best community scheme in the country.

“I speak to children. Prejudice is learnt. It is not something you are born with. Racism and prejudice in general come from a lack of education, from not understanding and from fear.

“If you engage with people from different races, different genders, different sexualities, you come to understand we are all pretty much the same. You come to realise that, actually, everyone is pretty cool.

“Getting that message across is very important.”