The organisation's chief executive Roger Draper said: "There has been a lot of excuses and people are running out of them.

"In recent years, sport has come from the well-meaning volunteer running it on an amateur basis to a multi-million pound industry.

"We have got to make sure there are clear targets and we, as one of the biggest investors in sport, are getting bang for our buck from our investment."

The Football Association will receive almost 58 million pounds (109 million dollars) over the next four years, the England and Wales Cricket Board 18.3m pounds (34.4m dollars), the Rugby Football Union 17.3m pounds (32.5m dollars) and the Amateur Swimming Association 17.8m pounds (33.5m dollars).

Meanwhile Sport England are set to inject 16.5m pounds (31m dollars) into tennis over the next four years.

The Lawn Tennis Association, one of Draper's former employers, has been repeatedly criticised for its failure to unearth a homegrown Grand Slam champion despite banking more than 20m pounds (37.6m dollars) a year from its share of profits at the Wimbledon Championships.

No British woman has won a major singles title since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977 while the drought for the nation's men extends nearly 70 years to 1936 when Fred Perry won the last of his three Wimbledon singles titles and his second US Open.

But Draper insisted: "Our focus with tennis is going towards changing the culture at the grass roots level.

"That means mini tennis and inner city tennis and getting tennis coaches on the ground. But within this plan we have shifted to holding the governing bodies more accountable for their key targets, including results.

"The LTA have got some very ambitious targets in terms of the amount of men and women being in the top 100 in the world.

"They have got a pool of talent coming through, Andrew Murray -- number one junior in the world and winner of the (junior) US Open and he's doing extremely well."

Draper promised increasing funding for Olympic athletes and reiterated his personal enthusiasm for London to stage the 2012 Games.

But he said Sport England's focus would be on developing the grassroots infrastructure of clubs, coaches and volunteers as well as backing individual competitors.

"The Olympic bid is imperative to getting funding, but it's not the be-all and the end-all," said Draper.

"If we don't win the bid we have got to continue to invest in sport. We are a passionate sporting nation.

"If we did get the Olympic bid, and we believe we have a very strong chance, it would be the catalyst for more investment in sport generally.

"In turn that will mean more focus on some of the Olympic sports that don't have the profile already.

"Sport hasn't been taken as seriously as it should have been in the past in terms of investment, the profile has always been there.

"But if we win the bid we have got to invest because we want to deliver success and want to get the nation inspired to do sport. But if we don't, let's make sure we still win medals in Paris, Madrid or New York.

"The infrastructure is the main goal. There will be future Olympic bids, future World Cups and it's a huge challenge but we want to get the nation active and successful."