Uranga was a
Basque nationalist. Prior to a
Basque derby tie against
Athletic Bilbao on 5 December 1976, Uranga formed a plan for both teams to exit the tunnel onto the field of play with a Basque flag, the
Ikurriña. Due to the policies of
Francoist Spain, the flag was still banned, despite
Francisco Franco's death a year earlier. In January 1977, the flag was legalised in Spain, with Bilbao goalkeeper
José Ángel Iribar stating the display "really helped" with the legalisation of the flag. Uranga was sentenced to eight years in prison after the kidnapping of Andrés Gutiérrez Blanco in 1987 by
ETA, an armed Basque separatist group. Blanco was held hostage in
Getxo for 47 days, until a ransom of 190 million
₧ was paid by his family. Despite his sentence, Uranga only served six months and was later pardoned by
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government in January 2009. ==References==