Kelly Smith and Super 5 League Players Launch 'Lionesses' Shopfront for Three Ahead of WWC Kickoff

Three UK has unveiled the new face of its flagship London store ahead of this week's Women's World Cup kickoff, featuring three lioness emojis in support of England's upcoming run in the tournament. 

The storefront makeover follows the success of last year’s campaign, which saw select Three stores have a makeover to show three lion emojis in support of the men’s football tournament. 

Image by Chris Deeley

The only problem this year is there isn’t an official lioness emoji. Three are leading a light-hearted Change.org petition, supported by former England player Kelly Smith MBE, to get a lioness emoji onto phones sooner rather than later. 

To date the campaign has already been backed by a host of famous football fans including Gabby Logan and gold-medallists Denise Lewis OBE and Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE. Three’s playful petition to the Unicode Consortium - the global standard for emojis organisation - has already received over 700 signatures and counting as the national team gets to roar for glory.

Three are calling the light-hearted campaign part of their 'long-term commitment to make life easier for customers', with emojis used by 92% of the world’s online population.

Former England star Kelly Smith MBE added: “The Lions had their chance last year in the World Cup and now the kingdom is under siege as England’s Lionesses get to roar for glory. Watching my national team brings a huge sense of pride and I love supporting them, anyway I can. 

"Three rallying for the female lion emoji to be added to the emoji keypad means anyone can show their support wherever they are and give women’s sport just as much attention as the men’s.”