Madrid  - The French daily Le Monde will have to compensate Real Madrid with 330,000 euros (421,000 dollars) over allegations of doping, the Spanish club said Thursday.

A Madrid court said a piece by the journalist Stephane Mandard in which the defending champion of La Liga was linked to the doping scandal around Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes was not suitably based on evidence.

On December 7, 2006, the reporter said in a piece published in Le Monde that Real Madrid, Barcelona and other football clubs were linked to the police investigation known as Operacion Puerto.

According to Mandard, doping at Real Madrid was planned with the mediation of the club's medical department, so head doctor Alfonso del Corral is set to get 30,000 euros (38,000 dollars) in compensation.

Real Madrid filed suit against both the daily and the journalist.

"It cannot be said that the journalist Mr Mandard has deployed exquisite diligence in checking the veracity of the news," the court decision says, according to Real Madrid.

"It starts off from some documents whose existence has not been proved and it has used only one source of dubious credibility that has never proved the very existence of the controversial documents," the text apparently adds.

The Spanish club thinks that this ruling restores "the honour and the dignity of Real Madrid as a football club that defends, above any other interest, that of pure sport and respect for legality.

"At the same time, the club says, the ruling "acknowledges that the behaviour of (the Real Madrid) medican service has been blameless at all times." (dpa)