Jorge Adorno/Reuters
South America’s top soccer official on Thursday rejected an invitation to take part in a proposed intercontinental tournament hosted and financed by U.S. Soccer in the summer of 2020, saying the continent’s governing body preferred to maintain the primacy of its own continental championship, the Copa América.
U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro had made the offer for a combined tournament featuring South America’s 10 teams and six from the region comprising North and Central America and the Caribbean in a letter earlier this week. U.S. Soccer’s offer would have been worth tens of millions of dollars for the South American teams, their regional rivals who took part, and the two confederations governing soccer in the Americas.