Nottingham Forest are facing a desperate battle for survival that could see the club selling all their best players or risk going bust.

Chris Bart-Williams, the captain, departed yesterday, on loan to Charlton with a view to a permanent move. Forest's most promising youngsters – Jermaine Jenas, Gareth Williams and David Prutton foremost among them, – are likely to be targeted next, although none would command huge fees. The whole squad is available if reasonable bids come in.

Shares in Nottingham Forest plc were suspended by the Alternative Investment Market yesterday after the company failed to publish its annual accounts in the required timeframe. The announcement came amid fears that the First Division side's debts have grown to almost £20m.

The last public statement on total debts came in May 2000, when Forest were £10.1m in the red. Accounts published in March this year showed losses running at £105,000 a week. The former double European Cup winners have also since lost their £3m annual "parachute payments" from the Premier League, which expire two years after demotion. Forest left the élite in May 1999.

Selling players may not be enough to ensure long-term stability, although the administrators have not yet been called in. The club's chairman, Eric Barnes, declined to say why the accounts had not been filed. "We do not know when they will be published," he said. It remains a possibility that if the declared liabilities were much higher than expected, creditors could start calling in debts and set off the administration process.

Forest shares were originally floated in autumn 1997 as the team were on their way to winning the First Division. Some 44 million were available at 70p each, valuing the club at £31m. Shares were suspended at 12p each on Friday, valuing the club, currently 13th in the First Division, at £5.28m.

Cost-cutting measures have been underway for some time, Andy Johnson was transferred to West Bromwich and Alan Rogers to Leicester. The Forest board also told the club manager, Paul Hart, not to pick Bart-Williams after he had turned down moves to Birmingham and Southampton.

Bart-Williams, Forest's best-paid player, is out of contract next summer and wants to benefit from a "Bosman" move. His loan to Charlton will benefit Forest only by removing him from the wage bill.

Forest's situation is far from unprecedented. Most notably, Crystal Palace came closest to folding under the pressures of life after the Premiership, the main one being high wages set against reduced income.