THREE secretive US hedge funds last night emerged as the key backers of American sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer’s controversial £800m takeover of Manchester United.

The New York-based funds of Citadel, Och-Ziff Capital Management and Perry Capital have poured £275m into the bid. Their involvement will bring some of America’s most colourful — and richest — investment tycoons into the takeover of the world’s most famous sporting franchise, Glazer has amassed a 74.8% stake in the club, and needs just a few more shares to achieve his ambition of taking control of the company.

The three hedge funds have combined to acquire special-preference shares issued as part of the Glazer takeover. Glazer will pay the funds interest and retain the option of buying back the shares at a later date.

A further £265m loan facility has been provided by JP Morgan and is being syndicated to a consortium of banks, with the remaining £272m provided through the Glazer family’s existing equity stake.

Kenneth Griffin, the youthful founder of Citadel, is one of the most respected money managers in America; he held his second wedding in the gardens of Versailles. Griffin started trading from his dormitory room at Harvard and founded the group with $250,000 (£135,000) from his mother, grandmother and two other Florida pensioners. The fund now manages more than $12 billion and accounts for more than 1% of daily trading in New York, London and Tokyo.

Perry, founded and run by Richard Perry, manages about $11 billion in assets. The fund is known for its bruising approach in takeover battles, and has built stakes in firms including Blockbuster, the video-rental chain. The managers of TCI, the hedge fund that led a successful fight against a German takeover of the London Stock Exchange, are both former Perry employees.

Och-Ziff is one of the world’s 20 largest hedge funds with an estimated $12 billion of assets under management. It shares its central London office with TCI, the activist fund manager that campaigned for the resignation of Deutsche Börse chief executive Werner Seifert.

Founder Dan Och, who spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs, started the fund in 1994 with $100m of capital from the Ziff brothers of the legendary American publishing family.

The hedge funds’ collective involvement in Glazer’s takeover of United may leave them open to reprisals from militant fans.

The Manchester Education Committee (MEC), an extremist fan group, is working on plans to disrupt United’s European games and big matches such as the FA Cup final. One source close to the MEC said it now regarded United as “occupied territory” and would not rest until Glazer quit the club.

The MEC plans to press United’s directors to resign, hoping to cause chaos at the club. But one director this weekend dismissed the idea of a mass walk-out and said he believed fans would eventually calm down. “It’s just 1% of fans who feel like this,” he said.

This weekend, the United board was considering its position with regard to the club’s remaining minority shareholders.

Glazer’s bid vehicle, Red Football, is likely to post its offer document on Wednesday. This will outline further details of his plan to improve profitability at the club.

Sources suggested that chairman Sir Roy Gardner and chief executive David Gill would leave the club within weeks of the takeover being completed.Other football-club directors are expected to stay.