Trialling new ways to make swimming more customer-friendly, rugby league more accessible and more horse riding opportunities available to disabled people are among projects to be funded using money diverted from those sports' governing bodies, it has been announced today.

After failing to meet targets agreed between them and Sport England in 2013/14, £1.53 million has been removed from four governing bodies. Every penny of the money, a mixture of National Lottery and government funding intended to get more people playing sport, will be reinvested in alternative projects to explore new ways of producing better results in those sports.