US-based sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer has made a new takeover bid for English football club Manchester United (MUFC).

The offer is believed to be worth around £800m and is expected to involve less equity borrowed against the club’s assets than Glazer’s previous bid in October 2004 – the main reason it was turned down by the MUFC board.

MUFC confirmed the approach in a statement and said that it had “received a detailed proposal subject to various preconditions which may form the basis of an offer for the club.”

Glazer has now also secured the backing of JP Morgan, the investment bank which had earlier refused to take part in a hostile takeover.

The bank withdrew its support after Glazer used his existing stake in the club to oust three MUFC board members at the club’s annual general meeting on 12 November.

He has 73.7 million shares in the club, amounting to a stake of 28.1 per cent and is closing in on the current majority shareholders, John Magnier and J.P. MacManus, who share a 28.9 per cent stake in the club.

The club’s fans, who bitterly oppose Glazer’s taking control of the club, were angered by the timing of the American millionaire’s latest bid. The offer was announced on 6 February – the anniversary of the 1958 Munich air crash, in which seven MUFC players died after travelling home from a European Cup tie.