Lord Triesman, who served as the head of the chairman of the bid before resigning after accusing rivals of corruption, made the allegation on Danish documentary A World Cup of Spies.

The 74-year-old said he was "surprised about the extent of the penetration of our computers" during the controversial race for the tournament, won by Russia.

"We did take some measures in case we were being spied on," he added.

"We began to make sure that we were much more security conscious."

Lord Triesman refused to reveal the identity of those responsible but insisted he knew who carried out the alleged hack.

England's bid, backed by the likes of Prince William and former international star David Beckham, received just two votes of the FIFA Executive Committee and was eliminated in the first round in December 2010.

Russia won in the second round with 13 votes of the 22-member Executive Committee, which has since been rebranded as the Council following the widespread corruption scandal in world football.

FIFA also decided to award the 2022 edition of the tournament at the same time, with Qatar emerging victorious.

Both the 2018 and 2022 bid races were the subject of corruption allegations.

A report from American lawyer Michael Garcia, eventually released in full by FIFA in June, seemed to clear Russia and Qatar of any severe wrongdoing but accused some bidders of unethical behaviour.