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.

But in a letter to Cordeiro dated Wednesday, first reported by the Brazilian news outlet Globo, the president of the South American federation, Alejandro Dominguez, categorically rejected the invitation to a proposed Continental Cup in 2020. Dominguez’s letter cited a lack of FIFA approval for the new event, but also a preference to prioritize the Copa América, which is the oldest international soccer championship in the world.

Last year, officials from the South American confederation, Conmebol, announced plans to shift the Copa América to a quadrennial schedule starting in the summer of 2020.