I'm pretty sure this happens to me too...are you running the game on a newer Windows version (ie Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7)? I have an XP laptop and this happens on occasion, there are a couple of things you can try:
1) Refresh the window by right-clicking anywhere in the window and hit "refresh", then try opening FIFA 98 again.
2) Right click the .exe file, click "Run As", and then play around with that stuff (like run as the administrator, etc)
3) Right click the .exe file, click "Properties", go to the Compatiblity tab, and run the program in Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows 2000 compatibility mode.
These things may or may not work, but I eventually got it running consistently on my laptop. You just have to play around with it. Hope this helps!
